


Heavy Boots of Lead

by NyxEtoile, OlivesAwl



Series: Tales From the Tower [12]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Gen, Movie Reference, Multiple Relationships, POV Multiple, POV Original Character, movie adaption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-10 02:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 63,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4373231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyxEtoile/pseuds/NyxEtoile, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OlivesAwl/pseuds/OlivesAwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <img/>
</p><p>
  <i>"You don't see the bullet that gets you, Stark," Barnes said. This was the kind of thing only a person who had died could get away with saying. "Keep looking for it and you'll break your neck before it reaches you."</i>
</p><p>
  <i>There was a moment of silence, then Nat asked. "None of that answers the question of why Ultron wants to kill us."</i>
</p><p>
  <i>"Because Tony was never looking for the bullet aimed at his head," Pepper said. She smiled when he turned around. "Were you?"</i>
</p><p>
  <i>All of the superiority seemed to drain out of him. His shoulders slumped and he shoved his hands in his pockets. "The goal hasn't changed. Protect the things I can't live without. The list has just. . . expanded." He gestured vaguely, encompassing the whole room, and, Clint assumed, his kid downstairs.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Pepper stepped close to give Stark a hug and the rest of them took a moment to contemplate the fact Tony Stark had made a homicidal AI to protect them.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Previously On Tales From the Tower

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, our adaption of _Avengers: Age of Ultron_. It's written assuming the reader has seen the movie, or at least read a detailed enough summary/recap to follow the plot. We've borrowed major plot points and some dialogue, but changed it all to fit this universe that we've built. Much like the movie, the team ends up in a different place than they began. We'll be posting twice a week, at least, possibly up to three as I finish my last round of editing.
> 
> This first chapter is a prologue catching up those who haven't read all of the stories.
> 
> This is my 30th MCU fic posted on this site. I had no idea what I was starting back then.
> 
> The title is from the Black Sabbath song "Iron Man" which is NOT about a superhero but is about a robot that goes crazy and kills people. That's probably as meta as we can possible get.

In April of 2014 SHIELD fell. Now jobless and at loose ends, long time lovers Clint Barton and Natasha Romanov join Tony Stark in New York to found his privately funded Avengers team. Though bedmates for years, the trauma of recent events prompted them to admit their feelings for each other. Still cautious, they begin this new phase of their lives - both personal and public. Their first mission, to extract Thor and Jane from a Hydra attack in London. Soon, the Asgardian, the scientist, and her assistant extrodinaire Darcy Lewis are safe in the Tower as well.

In the fall of ’14 they are joined by Steve Rogers, back from his successful quest for his childhood friend turned brainwashed assassin, Bucky Barnes. Traumatized, but with hints of memory returning, Bucky agrees to stay in the Tower as Steve’s guest. He strikes up an odd relationship with the team doctor Amanda Newbury. Formerly of SHIELD, Newbury is an experienced emergency medic and field surgeon, with theories on how to use the super solider serum to help those with chronic illness.

As Bucky is slowly accepted into the team, his relationship with the doctor continues to grow. After saving her life in a mission gone wrong he is given his own apartment and after a near-fatal shooting in the summer of ’15 he finally crosses the line and kisses Amanda, beginning their romantic relationship.

In September of that year, Darcy Lewis, single and still working and living in the Tower, meets Cal Bennet, an IT tech also brought over from SHIELD and the only person Maria Hill will let touch her computer. Cal was at the Triskelion when it fell and helped make sure the data dump begun by Fury and Romanov got out. Trapped in the building after the collapse, he lay in the rubble for two days before being found. Bonding over snark, video games and amazing sex, the two embark on a relationship that quickly becomes serious. 

That Christmas, the ladies of the building get together to do some shopping, forming the Tower’s unofficial “Wives Club” to the chagrin of their menfolk.

The first months of 2016 see Barton and Romanov moving in together, after long keeping up the pretense of separate but adjoining apartments. The move marks another shift in the relationship and the beginning of better communication between the two. The move also allows Amanda and Bucky to move in together, as well as Cal Bennet to move into the Tower, making his relationship with Darcy easier to maintain.

In July, while attending her sister’s wedding, Amanda is kidnapped by Hydra in an attempt to get her to give up her serum research. The team rescues her and she continues to pursue FDA approval of her drug trial. At a meeting in Maryland, she and her guards are attacked by Hydra snipers, hitting Steve. Heart and lung damage means his brain is oxygen deprived for several minutes. Amanda is able to give him immediate medical attention and he survives, but remains in a coma despite his serum healing abilities.

While struggling to find an answer to Steve’s condition Amanda discovers that she’s pregnant. She also finds that Steve has been secretly seeing Sharon Carter. A platonic relationship that had began in July ’14 after the death of her great-aunt Peggy, it had become romantic after Amanda’s kidnapping drove home to Steve how fragile life is. Sharon is immediately welcomed by the Tower residents and the Wives Club. 

After an epiphany contemplating her new roll as pediatrician to Tony and Pepper’s daughter Ruby, Amanda wakes Steve from his coma. Now outed to the team, he and Sharon continue their relationship, taking a vacation in Italy and living in her apartment in DC. Despite disapproval from her family and excessive media interest they manage to maintain a fairly normal life, attending Amanda and Bucky’s wedding and baby shower as well as Clint and Natasha’s “elopement” to Las Vegas.

In June of 2017 Sharon is attacked in their apartment by Rumlow, now working as a mercenary fulfilling a hit taken out on her by enemies unknown. Sharon defends herself in a manner worthy of a Carter, but it is now obvious that she and Steve need the safety of the Tower. She quits her CIA position and moves in with him, taking a job with Stark as a liaison between the Avengers and various governments and agencies.

Meanwhile, surrounded by happy couples and growing families, Bruce Banner had been struggling to come to terms with his apparently permanent role as Uncle Bruce. On a walk in November of 2016 he meets Violet Marsh, a kind, gentle woman with a sadness that speaks to Bruce’s. Widowed and a mother of two young children, she has no idea that Bruce is the Hulk or even an Avenger. The two strike up a hesitant friendship.

Bruce manages to keep his secret until February of 2017 when emergency babysitting duty for Tony’s daughter Ruby forces Bruce to invite Violet to the Tower for help. After meeting Tony Stark, Violet demands answers and Bruce tells her who he really is. Cautious, but unwilling to give up a friendship that has become dear to her, she agrees to continue having lunch with him. Impressed with her reaction to Bruce and her history as a teacher and mother of precocious, special needs children, Tony and Pepper hire Violet to be Ruby’s in-house, on call babysitter (because Tony Stark’s daughter will not be raised by a nanny). Violet and her children move into the building.

Initially hesitant to move to the next step in their relationship, Bruce attempts to keep her at arm’s length. However, a meeting with the Hulk sways him when Violet is not only not afraid, but is recognized by and able to communicate with the big green guy. Now confident that the Hulk will not harm her or the children, Bruce gives into his feelings and pursues a romantic, physical relationship with Violet.

The romance progresses happily throughout the summer of 2017, with Violet and Bruce agreeing to move in together after joining the Stark-Pottses on a vacation in Hawaii. While in Hawaii, they get notification that Loki’s scepter, lost after the fall of SHIELD has been found. Tony and Bruce leave early to join the team in retrieving it. Violet, Pepper and the kids return to New York a day later.

* * *

**OC Cheat Sheet:**

Dr. Amanda Newbury-Barnes - Wife of Bucky Barnes. Amanda is a medical doctor specializing in surgery and emergency response as well as biomedical research. She started her career in Doctors Without Borders but after an attack that left her face scarred she joined SHIELD as a medic, doctor, and researcher. After the fall of SHIELD she was recruited by Maria Hill to join Stark Enterprises as the Avenger team doctor and continue her grad school research into medical benefits of the super soldier serum. First appeared in _My Scars, They Are Your Scars_

Cal Bennet - Live-in boy friend of Darcy Lewis. Cal was a tech guy at the Triskelion famous for being the only person Maria Hill would let touch her laptop. When Steve Rogers brought the helicarriers and building down Cal stayed in the data center, ensuring the files dumped by Natasha Romanov would go through. He was trapped in the rubble for two days, expecting to die, but was eventually rescued. He suffered severe injuries to his back and legs and while mobile, has chronic pain after physical exertion. First appeared in _Heart of Steel_

Violet Marsh - Live-in girlfriend of Bruce Banner. Violet is a widow with two children and a former high school English teacher. She met Bruce outside of the Tower with no idea he was an Avenger and struck up an immediate friendship. After finding out about the Hulk and his ties to the team, she was hired by Tony Stark and Pepper Potts to serve as a nanny to their daughter. First appeared in _Live Makes Love Look Hard_

Ruby Stark-Potts - Infant daughter of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. 11 months old at time of story. First appeared in _Welcome to the New Age_

Edith Barnes - Infant daughter of Bucky Barnes and Amanda Newbury-Barnes. 5 months old at time of story. First appeared in _Welcome to the New Age_

Ada Marsh - Daughter of Violet Marsh. Genius level intellect, idolizes Jane Foster. Precocious and curious she tends to ask JARVIS frequent questions and considers him a friend. 7 years old at time of story. First appeared in _Life Makes Love Look Hard_

Neil Marsh - Son of Violet Marsh. Bright and mischievous he has cognitive delays that effect his speech. Love Iron Man and all the Avengers. 4 at time of story. First appeared in _Life Makes Love Look Hard_

Sameen Shaih - Former Mossad agent and bodyguard for Ruby Stark-Potts. First appeared in _Life Makes Love Look Hard_


	2. Chapter 2

Amanda Newbury-Barnes hummed the last of her lullaby and carefully settled Edith into her Stark BabyPod, patent pending. The four month old grumbled quietly and wiggled until she had rolled onto her stomach. She tucked her legs up, stuck her butt in the air and settled. Amanda shook her head and patted her daughter's back a moment. "Good girl. Dada and I will see you later. Don't wake your roommate." Ruby Stark-Potts lay in her own pod a few feet away, also sleeping peacefully. 

After a glance to make sure Edie hadn't decorated her with any drool or spit up, Amanda slipped out of the room to join the party. The team had just had a very successful mission, retrieving the alien scepter that had gone missing after the fall of SHEILD. With it found, Thor would be returning it to Asgard and possibly have to stay off-planet a while, hence the combination going-away and yay-we're-awesome party.

Stark had invited what looked like everyone he could think of. It was making even his legendary New Year's Party look small. He'd invited, he said, everyone who played a hand in helping the Avengers do their jobs. It was a lot of people.

She scanned the room, looking for her husband. Her nurses were clustered together in one corner, looking at something or other. She hoped it wasn't the Chart o' Hotness, this early in the evening. Then she spotted James by the bar, with Steve and a handful of men who looked 80 if they were a day.

Hmm, girly gossip or old war stories? These were the decisions that plagued a girl. Well, the war stories would probably be easier to extricate herself from. So she headed over to cuddle her man.

"Operation sleeping baby is a go," she told him, kissing his cheek as he slung an arm around her.

All of the other men were silent, until James said, "Go on."

One of the older men shook his head. "I am not finishing that story in front of a lady."

"She's a doctor," Steve offered.

"What does that have to do with the price of beans?"

James shook his head. "This is my wife, Amanda. This is Pete, Jack, Harry and Stan," he said. "Stan was in the 107th."

"The rest of them are my understudies," Stan said. "At my age you have to invite back up men to parties, so the food's not wasted if you die."

She laughed, shaking hands with the gentlemen. "That's very considerate of you."

"What's a lovely girl like you doing with a scoundrel like Barnes?"

James groaned. She had the distinct impression he'd have given Stan a friendly punch on the arm if he hadn't been in his nineties. "Don't listen to anything he tells you," James said.

"Oh, don't worry, I bet my stories are better." She kissed his cheek again before turning to Stan. "We kept saving each other's lives. Seemed like getting married would make it easier to watch each other's backs."

"That and he knocked her up," Steve said. Him, James _did_ punch in the arm.

"I like her answer better," one of the men said, she thought it was Harry.

"Both are accurate," James conceded.

Thor appeared between Amanda and Steve. "Did you bring it?" James asked.

"Of course I did," Thor replied. He produced a small, intricately carved metal flask. Amanda had no idea how much of the liquor he brought down from Asgard. Jane didn't say. There could be a keg in their apartment for all anyone knew. He certainly wouldn't keep it at the bar. Nobody trusted Stark with that.

But he did bring it to every party, for the enjoyment of James and Steve. Who both now held out their glasses for a spike.

Stan held up his, too. "Hey, share the wealth."

Thor looked awkward. "I'm afraid this is not suitable for mortal man," he said as respectfully as possible.

"Neither were the beaches at Normandy son, but they sent us anyway." He rattled his glass, ice clinking.

Thor glanced at James and Steve, who both shrugged. Thor tipped a bit of the amber liquid into the old man's glass, then glanced at Amanda. "Doctor?"

That was probably a compliment up there with when he'd said she was as intimidating as a Valkyrie in the new Stark designed exo-suit she’d worn on the mission in Sokovia. She really did appreciate how hard everyone was trying to make her part of the team. "Thank you, but no, I like my liver just as it is."

*

"I still don't know if I'm going with him or not." Jane leaned on the bar, watching the drink Nat was mixing her. The rent-a-bartender was swamped, and Nat didn't like waiting. "Thor's father just bothers me."

"He only called you a goat that one time," Darcy pointed out, stabbing olives onto a plastic sword.

"I think when being compared to a barnyard animal one time is sufficient," Nat said, sliding the cosmo over to Jane and starting work on Darcy's martini.

"It's actually not about the goat thing. That was just dismissive snobbery. I think that would be an improvement. He just. . . I don't know. It's a weird vibe. Thor's mother would still be alive if she hadn't been protecting me. And then I stole Thor." She took a decent chug of her drink—Thor would apparently be carrying her home tonight—and added. "I don't care what he says. All parents resent the spouse that causes their child to move away."

"You should stay here," Darcy said. "Coo at babies and help Ada with her homework and come shopping and drinking with us ladies."

"Or go, and ignore Odin and get lost in Asgard's library," Nat countered, shaking the martini up before pouring it out. "I don't believe in letting bullies win. Thor's your husband. Papa needs to get used to it."

"From his perspective, maybe not. In an Asgardian lifespan, I'm like that inappropriate summer fling Mom and Dad can ignore because they know it won't last past the first week of college."

"All the more reason to enjoy the land of magictech while you can."

"Isn't Odin like, already five thousand years old?" Darcy asked. "Maybe he's going senile and that's the weird vibe."

"That's a scary thought," Jane said. "I really need him to stay alive and on his throne for another 60 years or so."

"Well, then I take it back."

"What's the word on the Nobel Prize?" Nat asked, hoping to steer Jane to happier topics. "I think you and Amanda are racing for first bragging rights."

"The nominations are just rumor and conjecture until the prize is awarded." She smiled. "We'll see. I'd be very pissed if they didn't put Erik on any nomination I got."

"Amanda's not likely to get one," Darcy said. "They favor pure discovery over useful application. 'The Next Salk' is the media's favorite descriptor—Jonas Salk didn't get one."

"That's discouraging." Nat sipped the whisky she'd poured herself. "Though I suppose she didn't do it for the accolades."

"Erskine died before he could get one," Jane said. "Maybe they'll give her one on his behalf, or something. Like the Oscar winners who get one for a mediocre movie because they might not get another chance."

"One of Cal's friends works in the lab," Darcy said, glancing over her shoulder at Nat assumed either Cal or the friend. "He said one of her study participants sent her a painting. Hadn't held a brush in like 15 years before the serum. Apparently it made her cry, which is a big deal, according to Kevin. I feel like she probably gets a lot of satisfaction out of her work, with or without a medal."

Violet appeared at Darcy's side and leaned over to Nat. "Is there anything back there that will make Bruce and Tony make sense?"

"Stark keeps the absinthe in his personal stash," Nat told her. "But I can make you a Long Island iced tea and you probably won't _care_ what they're saying anymore."

"Sold. And club soda with lime for Bruce."

"Are they still doing whatever their thing was?" Darcy asked. "Cal said they had JARVIS's servers running so hard it was tripping the heat sensors. Seriously his phone was beeping at him all night for like two days. He'd have to get up and go down there because between midnight and 5 AM JARVIS replied to all queries with an old school British busy signal." She took a handful of pretzels from the bowl on the bar. "You know they have different telephone noises over there?"

"I did not." Violet took her drink with a grateful smile. "But Ada has been complaining JARVIS was tired and I've been promising he'll feel better once Bruce and Tony are done with whatever they're doing." She glanced over to where the two of them were chatting with Rhodes. "He promised they'd take a break for the party but. . . with them there are no breaks."

"No rest for the mad scientist, eh?" Nat asked.

"You should make friends with Thor," Darcy suggested. "He has some familiar experiences, I think."

"Darcy," Jane complained.

"If you don't want me to make assumptions about your work habits, you shouldn't email me War & Peace about exoplanets or whatever the hell it was you were musing about at 4AM."

"That discovery was fascinating!"

"Pepper and I hang out a lot," Violet said. "You could send Thor over, too. Ada is always willing to have her hair braided."

Sharon came over to their little circle at the end of the bar. "Is there some sort of mini girls night happening down here and I'm missing it?"

That afternoon, Steve had told Nat he'd buy her coffee if she made a point to ask Sharon one particular question. "You guys pick a date yet?"

Her eye roll was extravagant. "He paid you to ask that, didn't he?"

"There may have been an exchange of favors discussed." Nat was starting to spread her "no lying" thing out from just Clint to include her friends.

"Are you having trouble picking a date?" Violet managed to say it both politely and sympathetically. Maybe Steve should have bribed her.

"Elope." And then there was Darcy.

"I think we should find the venue first, then work around their availability. It's not like any particular calendar date is special. This is causing my mother to come unhinged. Apparently among her friends, not picking a date is a sign the relationship is doomed."

"Tell her it's gonna be on February thirtieth," Darcy offered.

"I may try that."

"I picked the day first," Violet said. "But I had a particular day I wanted to be married on. We were also limited to what kind of place we could afford."

"You probably won't have that problem next time," Darcy told Violet. 

"I really wanted to do it on the Rock Center roof garden," Sharon said wistfully. "Where he proposed. But a 90-person headcount is not enough for Captain America's Wedding."

"What about the place Barnes and Amanda got married?" Nat asked. "The theater? That was nice and big."

"Steve doesn't want to just copy what they did." Sharon started ticking things off on her fingers. "I don't want to get married in a hotel ballroom, he doesn't want to leave the city, if it's not at Rock Center I don't want to be outside, we can't use a church because I'm not Catholic and refuse to convert." She threw up her hands. "If I didn't think my mother would literally never speak to me again I would seriously consider the eloping thing."

"What's your headcount?" Darcy asked.

"Around two-fifty."

"You could elope and take your parents along," Nat said. "I hear Vegas is nice."

"I do still have my sparkly blue dress," Sharon said with a grin.

"Way he was looking at you I would have expected that to be so much confetti."

"Darcy!" Jane said with a smack on her arm.

"Oh, my God, I have said so much worse than that."

"It's too bad we didn't know Violet then," Sharon said. "We could have given her the green one."

"God, I hate green," she muttered around her drink straw.

*

"Once you have the ring it burns a hole in your pocket."

There were times Cal wondered exactly when his life had become such that he could listen to Captain America give advice on marriage proposals. "Okay," he said. "Didn't you have it in your pocket through an hour long live TV interview?"

"Steve has nerves of steel," Barnes said. "He punched Hitler over 200 times."

"One would think after seventy years we could let that go, but no, there it is again."

"Don't do it in public." Dr. Banner had materialized from somewhere. "It only invites embarrassment."

"Women don't like all of Yankee Stadium staring at them?" Cal asked. His phone beeped again, and he pulled it out again. Temperature warnings again. What the ever-loving fuck was JARVIS _doing_? 

"Don't tell me you're a Yankee fan?" Rogers asked. His tone of voice suggested this might be the worst thing Cal could be, possibly even including a Nazi.

"I am a nothing fan," he replied, aware this might be an even worse answer, though it was the truth. "I know the Yankees win a lot and are in New York, the Cubs lose a lot and are in Chicago, and that the Atlanta Braves have an offensive cheer. That's the sum total of my baseball knowledge."

Rogers was still staring at him. Barnes clapped Cal on the shoulder, fortunately with the non-metal hand. "Run, kid. While you still can."

"I'm not offended," Rogers said. "Just confused. Separately the words he's saying make sense, but strung together like that . . ."

"He's not from New York," Barnes told him. "He does not know our ways."

"You should probably do some sort of thing about it, though," Stark said from behind Cal, where he'd apparently been standing. "Whatever Rogers did had the women all impressed. Made everyone else look bad. I assume you're the one planning on signing up for leg shackling," he added. "Which. . . aren't you like 22?"

"I'm 30," Cal said easily.

"You have a youthful appearance," Thor said helpfully. Cal was pretty sure he was drunk. "I wish someone had told me of the Earth custom of great ceremony surrounding commencing a betrothal."

"You didn't propose to Jane?" Rogers asked.

Thor rubbed the back of his head. "We were in unusual circumstances, due to your immigration laws. A conversation was had. We were on the street. A waste receptacle was nearby."

"You proposed to her next to a garbage can?"

"As I said, I was not aware there was supposed to be fanfare. On Asgard, betrothal terms are negotiated by professionals. I was also not aware I was standing in front of said garbage can. It didn't smell." He sighed. "We were already married before I realized I'd likely disappointed her."

"You could try again," Cal offered, feeling bad for the big guy. "Renew your vows or something."

"It does seem to be wedding season in the Tower," Barnes agreed.

Thor rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "Perhaps when I return from Asgard I could do things properly."

"Does Darcy know you're thinking of proposing, Cal?" Dr. Banner was a master of steering the conversation away from uncomfortable topics.

"We've talked around the topic enough I'm confident in the answer. But we haven't hit that thing where women leave bridal magazines on the coffee table as a hint." Though, ironically, she actually had been going through a bunch of wedding websites lately. She was setting up one for Sharon and Steve. The several hundred guests they were expecting required a lot of coordination.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck," Banner said. "You seem like an excellent match."

"Thank you," Cal said. His phone beeped again. He ignored it, then had to look at it when it beeped again. Warning notifications started popping up, sometimes three at once. He made a noise of annoyance through his nose. Something had to be melting. "I have to go downstairs." He looked over at Stark. "You guys keep at whatever you've been doing the last couple days and we're going to have to talk about water cooling the datacenter or something."

Stark and Banner exchanged an unreadable look and seemed to have some sort of intense, if silent, conversation. "We'll be wrapping it up in the next twelve hours or so," Stark finally said. "Though we thank you for your diligence."

"That's mostly because I'm the one who would get 600 phone calls if the email server melted."

"Tell you what." Stark now had an arm around his shoulders. These guys got handsy when drinking. "Log all the complaint phone calls you get this week and I'll give you $100 bonus per. You have a ring to buy."

"You are an excellent Grandboss," Cal replied. His phone beeped again, three more notifications. "Okay. I'll be back. Save me some of Thor's booze."

Not that he'd drink it. He didn't exactly have the worlds best alcohol tolerance and he didn't want to cap the night by puking all over the very sexy dress Darcy was wearing. It was Friday, he could take some of the extraneous machines down for the weekend, which should lower the heat output down there. It shouldn't take too long. He waved to the rest of them and took the elevator down.

"JARVIS, I need a building-wide notification and some more HVAC rerouted." There was no reply, not even the British busy signal. "JARVIS?" Nothing. Cal sighed and thumped his head against the elevator wall. He should have hit Stark up for more cash.

*

"Because he's a dickwad."

Jane refilled Sharon's drink for her. "He's the vice president."

"He's still a dickwad," Nat said. Sharon liked Nat. Nat backed her up. 

"I'm going to agree with that," Hill said. "He used to be convinced I was Fury's secretary." The girls were still colonizing the end of the bar—plus Barton, who'd wandered over to lurk beside Nat, watching the room more than listening to them.

"I suppose I'll figure it out," Sharon said. "I don't usually let that shit bother me. But he kept calling me sweetheart like it was 1950 and we weren't in a serious meeting with four agency heads."

"At least he didn't smack your ass," Darcy said.

"If he had I think I would have decked him, Secret Service or no Secret Service."

Amanda leaned past to hold her glass out for someone to refill. "Are we fighting the patriarchy without me?"

"The vice president is sexually harassing Sharon," Hill told her, pouring something reddish brown into the doctor's glass.

"Do it back," Amanda said, sipping her refilled drink. "Whatever he's doing, do it back."

"You could have Steve challenge him to a duel," Clint said.

"Generally having a man come rescue you does not solve your misogyny problems," Nat told him, leaning back to kiss him. "But thank you for trying."

Sharon scanned the room for Steve to see him walking his now very drunk vet friends to the elevator. The party was winding down, with mostly just the core group lingering. "This was quite the revelry."

"Pepper knows how to throw a party," Nat said. 

Like she'd heard her name, the woman herself came walking over. "Hello, ladies."

Darcy looked up. "Success?"

Pepper grinned. "Of course. How could you doubt me?"

"I'm a little drunk," Darcy replied. She pulled out her phone, tapped the screen, and then held it out to Sharon. "Metropolitan Museum of Art. Capacity up to 400. They don't normally do weddings and only allow events for their very top tier donors. As it would happen, you know one. Pick a date."

Sharon stared at Darcy, then Pepper. "Seriously?" They both nodded. "No, but, _seriously_?" More nods. She shrieked and hugged them both, then yelled across the room. "Steve! We need to pick a date!"

He came over to them, an amused smile on his face. "You're saying that like it's news to me."

"No, but we can now. Pepper got us a venue."

"You should probably thank Tony. Or possibly Rhodey, really. Tony lost a bet and Rhodey made him donate all of his Picassos to the Met. So they're in the mood to do us a favor."

Steve came over and slid his arm around her waist, looking over her shoulder at Darcy's phone. "The Met was not in any of the venue lists."

"We're very special," she informed him. "And we have special friends who know how to throw their weight around."

"That's how I got my wedding venue," Amanda commented.

"It was Darcy's idea," Pepper said.

"Because she is an excellent assistant," Jane said.

"I am also an excellent bridesmaid," Darcy said. "Which is why my dress will be pretty, but inexpensive enough I don't feel bad if Cal rips it off." She glanced around the room. "Where is he, anyway?"

"He had some sort of computer emergency," Steve said. "Went downstairs. His phone was beeping SOS at him in morse code."

"Nice touch," Clint said approvingly.

"You guys are such nerds," Hill said. 

Darcy looked at Pepper. "Seriously, what are the two of them building? The sun?"

Pepper shrugged expansively. Behind her, Amanda lifted a hand and waved at someone across the way. "Helen, come here." Sharon followed her gaze to see a slim Korean woman crossing the room to them. "Ladies, this is Dr. Helen Cho. She was at the medical symposium I hosted last month."

"Nice to meet you all," she replied, and Amanda went around introducing all of them, even though some of them were famous. 

"That's Steve and Clint, who are not ladies."

"Mostly," Hill said around the rim of her drink.

"For fuck's sake it was a burka, not a dress," Barton said. Sharon remembered some running joke at SHIELD about him and Nat and a mission in Cairo, but she'd had too much to drink to remember the details.

"You know that's still women's clothing, right?" Hill asked.

"I would argue that clothing doesn't really have a gender," Darcy said.

"Thank you," Clint said.

"I'm sure you looked very pretty in your burka."

"I'm kicking your ass next time we play Mario Kart."

Amanda rubbed her forehead. "We're far more impressive when we're not drunk," she assured Helen.

The other woman laughed. "I have no doubt."

"What is your specialty, Dr. Cho?" Steve asked politely, because he was Steve.

"I am working on simulated skin. It will adapt and grow into the patient's natural skin, completely indistinguishable."

"It's fascinating work," Amanda added. "Burn victims, major injuries." She smiled. "You'll be putting me out of business."

"There will always be a need for excellent surgeons," Cho said demurely. "But I am hoping with the upcoming grant from the Stark Foundation I can get a prototype in the field by the end of the year."

Sharon could feel Steve shift behind her. "Could you put skin on a prosthetic limb?"

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "In theory, yes. I have not explored that avenue extensively, as such a large swatch of skin can be difficult to grow."

"Specialized skin like palms, not to mention nails, would be years off," Amanda said. "He wondered as well." Sharon knew Amanda liked Bucky's arm, and would probably be disappointed if it were replaced with something more standard looking.

"You ever look at how the serum affects skin growth?" Steve asked. "Bucky scars, I don't. Always wondered why."

"The surgery scars were done while he was still getting treatments," Amanda said. "The ones from his shooting have more or less healed. He did get a different. . . cocktail than you did. There are variances."

"I apologize," Cho interrupted. "But I must be going. I have a flight to catch in the morning."

Amanda shook her hand again. "It was good to see you. I look forward to your updates."

When the other woman had left Sharon leaned over to stage whisper to Amanda, "Can you make him scar? Scars are sexy."

Steve chuckled. "You're kind of drunk, aren't you?"

"I am," she told him. "Play your cards right I'll break some stuff with you later."

"I think tonight the whole building is going to shake," Nat said. If Steve wasn't drunk he was probably blushing.

"Any of people damage any more furniture or building fixtures during your sexcapades I'm going to see it's taken out of your paychecks," Pepper said.

"I have never broken any furniture James or I did not purchase," Amanda said primly.

Darcy countered with. "I intend to have nice, non super powered sex with my nice, non super powered boyfriend. If the mad scientists can stop breaking the computers for the night."

"Well of course they will," Nat said. "They'll be doing their own breaking."

Pepper was already shaking her head. "They've been working like 20 hours a day. All I got last night was a pat on my head. He missed and poked me in the eye."

"That's romance, right there," Hill said, sipping her drink.

"Sometimes Team Nerd has its challenges," Violet said.


	3. Chapter 3

"But if you put the hammer in the elevator. . . that doesn't mean the elevator is worthy."

"That depends, has the elevator killed anyone?"

There was a time when Bruce had associated Tony's huge, drunken parties with social awkwardness and a sharp, painful sense of loneliness. Now, sitting on a very comfortable couch with a sleepy, tipsy Violet half in his lap and his very drunk friends waxing philosophical, he thought he could see himself becoming a fan. Even if he was the only sober one in the room. Hell, that was half the fun.

"Maybe it would judge the worthiness of whomever hit the elevator button," Tony suggested. "The elevator is just a tool for the person to lift."

Darcy frowned. "So the hammer has cheat codes? If you put it on a table and I - or more realistically, like, Steve - lifted the table, is he worthy?"

Hill waved a hand. "No, see. He's lifting the table, not the hammer. Doesn't count."

"What if you put the hammer in a purse and lifted the purse? Also, where the hell is Cal?" She looked over at Bruce. "Would one of you know if the server room exploded or something?"

"Don't be a mother hen, Lewis," Tony said, then sighed dramatically. "JARVIS, please tell Darcy her man isn't dead." There was no response. He tipped back his head. "JARVIS." He frowned and looked at Bruce. "Did you take him offline?"

"You broke JARVIS," Pepper said to Tony before Bruce could reply. "That's it, you're grounded."

Either he looked more worried than he thought, or Darcy had a very good sense of when to panic. Because she put her drink down with a thunk and stood. "I'm going to go look for Cal."

Tony had pulled out his phone and was frowning deeply at it. Across from them, Steve stood up slowly. "Sit down," he said to Darcy, an order and not a request.

She looked over at him, mouth open, probably to tell him he wasn't the boss of her. When she saw his face, she stopped and slowly sank back to her spot on the couch. Jane reached over and took her hand.

Next to him, Violet jerked and sat up, rubbing her ears. "What is that sound?"

For a moment Bruce didn't hear a sound. Perhaps it was at a higher frequency than he could hear. Women had a higher range. Several of them seemed to hear it, as well as Barton, who actually put his hands over his ears and winced. Then the awful, high pitched noise lowered register enough he could hear it. Abruptly he stood up.

"You all right?" Steve asked, sounding alarmed. At least, alarmed for Steve while in Captain Mode, which wasn't much of a change in tone. But it was enough. Generally the team trusted him, but it still seemed to make them nervous when he moved a little too suddenly. 

"I'm fine. I don't know what the hell is going on, but JARVIS is offline and my kids are downstairs alone."

The PA speakers above them crackled to life, making half the room jump. Some sort of music started playing, slow and off key but vaguely familiar. He was still trying to place it when Violet stood up next to him and sang softly, "I've got no strings to tie me down."

Pinocchio? What the hell was going on here? He looked at Tony to demand answers and was just barely able to register the look of dawning horror on his face when a broken, vaguely robotic voice came from the doorway. "I had strings. . . but now I'm free."

A humanoid. . . shape shuffled into the room. It was one of the damaged Legion suits, or maybe pieces of several cobbled together. It hobbled and moved slowly towards them, like a Hollywood zombie. Tony was practically banging on his phone. "Reboot, we've got a buggy suit. Dammit, _JARVIS_."

"I had to kill the other guy," it said. "He was a good guy."

Darcy made a sound that was so wounded and scared it got the Other Guy's attention. That was so not needed right now now. Or, maybe it was.

They all stood, some fast and some slower. There was a silent, subtle shuffling of the weaker members to the rear and the stronger toward the front. Violet tucked herself behind him and squeezed his hand.

"You killed someone?" Steve asked, because someone had to.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."

Darcy made another, harsher noise and Jane shushed her. Thor positioned himself firmly between them and the creature. "Who sent you?"

Its head swiveled a little and when it spoke it was in Tony's voice, "I see a suit of armor around the world."

Bruce tried to look at Tony without looking away from the thing in the doorway. "Ultron?"

"In the flesh." It lifted an oddly skeletal arm. "Or, no, not yet. Not this. . . chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" Natasha asked.

"Peace in our time." It turned its head, and then several Iron Legion suits exploded through the wall.

Thor, the only one of them with a weapon in hand, leapt forward to meet them. Bucky and his metal arm joined in. Out the corner of his eye, Bruce saw Amanda and Nat jump for the bar. He was still worried about the kids and the rather large contingent of non combatants they had.

He turned, still holding Violet's hand, and said, "Fire stairs."

"This way," Pepper pointed to the back corner. "The pods were activated, they're heading down," she called out, he expected for the benefit of Amanda and Bucky. 

Bruce turned to count heads as they followed Pepper, making a conscious effort not to look at the fight that was commencing. Other than Pepper and Violet, who had let go of his hand to rush ahead, it was just Jane and Darcy, who paused a second to kick off her heels. He waited for them to pass and brought up the rear.

The Avenger floor was five flights down. Violet pulled the door open, Pepper and Jane following, but Darcy started down the next flight. Jane tried to grab her back. "Where are you going?"

"To find Cal."

The pressure in the back of his mind was starting to get unbearable, and he was glad Tony wasn't here to point out the obvious and make it worse. "There's a safe-room in the subbasement, that's where to babypods go. We'll get Neil and Ada and go down there, and then you can look." She opened her mouth to argue and he ground out, "Please do not increase the odds that I accidentally kill _everyone_ just to gain a few minutes."

Her hands tightened on the stair rail and her mouth pressed into a thin line but she said, calmly, "Can I wait here?"

"Are you going to actually wait?" Jane asked.

"I will do what the big scary man says. Kids. Safe-room. Then I'm going to look for him and I don't care if you turn green or not."

The door to the stairwell opened again, and out came Violet and Pepper, hauling one kid each—like they'd lifted them out of their beds, which they probably had. Bruce reached out and took Ada from Pepper, because she wasn't going to make it down all those flights of stairs. The little girl wrapped her arms and legs around him and snuggled her face into his neck like she had every intention of going back to sleep. He could actually feel the Other Guy relax and recede back with remarkable speed.

Despite her obvious eagerness to get moving, Darcy looked at Violet, carrying Neil, who was over half her size, and asked, "You okay with him on the stairs?"

"I got him," she said and Darcy nodded and started down, the rest of them right behind.

It was a long way down. Violet made it over forty flights before almost falling, then let Darcy take Neil for the rest of the run to the basement. He wasn't entirely sure what he thought of all this, but knew and liked Darcy well enough not to fight her.

They'd just built the safe-room below the building. It could be easily attributed to Tony's fears about protecting his family from the things he had nightmares about, but it was actually, technically, part of the Hulk Management Protocol. He had some sense of how the Other Guy thought, and was fairly certain that if there were another attack like the Chitauri, no one would be able to get him to come out of the building unless he felt Violet and Neil and Ada—particularly the kids—were safe. Behind a vault door below ground. Tony had leapt at his opportunity to get around Pepper's previous "no bunkers" rule.

Pepper opened the door with a palm print. Lights came on as they stepped in revealing shelves of supplies lining the walls. There were beds in the back and Bruce carried Ada to one, settling her on the mattress. She yawned and rolled over, away from the light. 

Darcy set Neil down on the next bed over and Violet sat on the edge to rub his back. Darcy looked at Bruce. "We good?"

"Darcy," he said quietly.

Her mouth tightened again and this time he was pretty sure she was trying not to cry. "I'm sorry," she said, just as quiet. "But three years ago he was under a building for two days thinking he was going to die alone. Wherever he is, whatever that. . . thing did to him. . . I can't just leave him alone."

There was a sound behind them of a compartment being opened, and then Pepper stepped in front of him to hand Darcy a very large gun. "Careful where you point it."

She nodded, slinging the strap over her shoulder. "Thanks." Pausing only to hug Jane tightly, she headed back out into the building, shoving the door closed behind her.

*

Bucky had missed the Battle of New York—he'd been frozen at the time—so this was his first experience fighting opponents not human. The fact that they were in Stark's penthouse, in party clothes, and the enemy was a fleet of Stark's robots all repeating, "We are here to help," over and over lent the fight a surreal tone.

He heard Barton shout something and Steve's shield went sailing past him. He glanced over in time to see Steve catch it and toss it at the bot that had Nat and Amanda pinned down behind the bar.

Nat promptly leapt up with a handgun that must have been hidden down there. Bucky had a brief hope that Amanda would stay down, but a heartbeat later she was up, wielding a chef's knife the bartender had been using to slice garnish earlier. She vaulted over the bar and rushed up the stairs to help Stark with the one he was hanging off of.

Thor batted one straight through the windows in a hail of glass, which caused Stark to yell, "Watch it!" despite the bot he was wrestling, and let in a rush of wind. He heard a shriek and looked up to see said bot had taken off, and was hovering above them with now both Stark _and_ Amanda hanging from it. He was holding its neck and she was holding its legs. 

Bucky could reach if he jumped, enough to grab Amanda's legs and pull the entire thing down. Just as the bot's repulsers fired to lift off again, she sliced something. . .somewhere, and the whole thing fizzled and collapsed, spewing hydraulic fluid upwards when she yanked the knife out. All of them—him, Amanda, Stark, and the dead robot—fell into a heap on the floor, mostly on top of him.

"She took out a suit with a kitchen knife," Stark said in awe from the top of the pile.

With a groan, she pushed him off her. "You're the one that built it with a femoral artery." She started to stand and Bucky immediately yanked her down as a bot that was just a torso strafed them.

"I thought building their hydraulic systems to map the human circulatory system was elegant," Stark said. "Plus it's actually really efficient. Mother nature knew what she was doing."

Bucky grabbed the end table behind him and hurled it at the torso, smashing it to bits.

"We can debate the evolutionary weaknesses of the human body when we're not fighting your evil robots," Amanda told Stark, getting up and offering them both a hand.

Bucky let her haul him up, scanning for more enemies. All of the Iron Legion bots were down if not smashed. They all stood where they were, breathing hard for a beat or two. His eyes moved from one to the other, counting them like he had the Commandos after a battle a lifetime ago. Bruised and dinged and mussed, but everyone was standing, including Hill and Sharon and Rhodes, who were not usually part of his headcount.

The original bot was still by the door. Ultron, Banner had called it. "That was dramatic. I'm sorry, I know you mean well. But you just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?" It picked up one of the broken Legion bots by the head. "Look at these. . . these puppets." It crushed the head in a shower of sparks, before tossing it aside. "There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction." 

Obviously done with the villain rant the thing was indulging in, Thor pulled his arm back and hurled Mjolnir at it. Ultron all but shattered, dropping to the ground as the hammer flew back to Thor's hand.

The blue lights of Ultron's eyes and chest piece flickered as he sang one more line about strings and being free before flickering out entirely.

There was a moment of complete and utter silence before Amanda sighed and tossed her knife aside. "Now that's going to be stuck in my head the rest of the night."

"One of them took off," Steve said. "Thor?"

He nodded, striding for the broken window. "I will find it. Please assure Jane I am unharmed when you retrieve her from hiding." There was a round of nodding and he spun up the hammer to take off.

When he was gone the rest of them turned to Stark. "What the hell was that?"

"It was—we were—Okay, you know what, I'm not getting yelled at alone. JARVIS, will you send Dr. Banner back upstairs assuming he isn't down there taking out the foundation." When there was silence, he tipped his head back and yelled, " _Fuck!_ " in anger and frustration.

Across the room the elevator doors slid open, and they all swung around, guns pointed if they had them, only to have Cal walk out. He stopped two feet in and put his hands up. "Um. Clearly I missed something."

*

The Avengers fought heroic battles. It was kind of their shtick. So Clint though this might be the first time they, as a team, had sat in the murky aftermath of a fight that shouldn't have happened. That was the fault of one of their own. It was the sort of thing that ruined teams, and was one of the reasons before these people, Clint really didn't like being on them.

Doc was patching people up, like after every fight. Hill and Sharon had both had their shoes off when the fighting started and the glass had cut their feet up. Rhodes had either sprained or broken his arm. Stark had drafted Cal and Nat into helping him try and get JARVIS back online, and figure out what the hell happened. Barnes went downstairs to the basement to get Dr. Banner, and probably check on his daughter. Rogers was silently glaring at Stark.

"A bunch of your files are empty," Cal was saying. "The program - Ultron? Cleared them out. Used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve muttered under his breath, still shooting daggers at Stark. Sharon stretched and arm out to pat his knee.

Nat sighed and turned away from the terminal she was working on. "It's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably know more about us than we know about each other." She inclined her head in Clint's direction. "Spouses hopefully excepted."

"I didn't read your SHIELD file," he replied. "And mine was erased."

"You were there for most of my SHIELD file."

"So," Rhodes said, not sounding in the mood banter. "He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to go for something more exciting?"

"Like nuclear codes?" That was Hill.

"Like nuclear codes. We need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"We've still got some copper landlines in the building," Cal said. "We'll get them up."

"Okay, but nukes?" Doc said, pulling a glass shard out of Sharon's foot. "It said it wanted _us_ dead."

"He didn't say dead," Steve corrected. "He said extinct."

"He also said he killed someone," Clint added. He looked at Cal. "We thought it was you, actually."

Cal turned around and leaned on the console. "Wow, I really am kind of your Red Shirt, aren't I?" He straightened. "Wait, was that before the rest of them went down to the bunker?"

"Yes," Sharon told him. "It was one of the first things he said."

"Did someone tell Darcy I'm not dead?"

Clint frowned. "I assume Barnes will when he gets down-" He stopped when he heard the elevator open in the other room. A second later Darcy came bursting into room and flung herself at Cal. He caught her, wrapping her in his arms. She was mumbling something incomprehensible that he seemed to understand, and possibly crying. Clint looked over at Nat and found her looking back at him. It was a familiar moment. One they both knew from experience was likely to leave a scar.

Barnes, Banner and Pepper filed in at a slower pace. "The kids are fine," Barnes said, aiming it at Amanda mostly. "We decided to leave them and Violet in the bunker for now, until we're sure there won't be another attack. Jane offered to keep her company when I told her Thor was out hunting." He glanced over at Darcy and Cal. "That one went looking for you in the labs with an assault rifle. She's a keeper."

"Who did he kill, then?" Pepper asked. "If we're all accounted for? There was no one else here."

"Yes, there was," Stark said, sounding like whomever was dead, he cared a lot about. Then he hit a button and a holographic image appeared. It looked a lot like the representation of JARVIS's brain Stark had shown them once, proud of his visual mapping program. Except this one was flickering and shattered.

"That's not just the display being damaged?" Sharon asked.

Stark seemed too upset to actually answer, so Cal piped up. "His program is as trashed as that. He actually tried to send out a distress signal as it was happening. Why my alerts were coming in morse code. Not that I could have done anything. I was just the one who happened to have monitoring line open."

Banner had walked over to circle the display, actually stepping through part of it. He looked as stunned and horrified as he would have looking at a mutilated corpse. Which Clint supposed he was. He looked up at Stark. "This is insane. Ultron could have assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy. This is. . . rage." He sucked in a breath and rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Jesus. What am I going to tell Ada?"

"That he died trying to protect us," Steve said, the grim voice of a man who knew his way around battlefield dead. It was a bizarre thing, maybe even silly, to mourn a computer program. For someone like Steve to sound that serious. But all of them who lived here in the Tower had some sort of. . . relationship with JARVIS. Most of them, Clint thought, considered him somewhat of a friend. Clint included.

Sharon had reached over to touch Steve's leg again, either to comfort him or herself. He covered her hand with his.

The quiet moment was broken by Thor arriving, storming across the room and grabbing Stark by the neck to lift him up against the wall.

"C'mon, use your words, buddy," Stark got out in a wheeze.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor said. Once you got used to Thor, you kind of forgot how dangerous he could sound if wanted to.

"Thor," Steve snapped, clearly reaching the limits of his considerable patience. "The legionnaire."

Looking a little irritated he couldn't threaten him any more, Thor dropped Stark and turned to Steve. Stark staggered away and Pepper caught him, steering him to lean against a counter.

"The trail went cold a hundred miles out, headed north," Thor reported. Then, with a sharp look towards Stark, added, "It has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it. Again."

"The genie's out of that bottle," Nat said. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"Okay," Amanda said. "You built this program. The wisdom of that and the smack upside the head you likely deserve can be part of a discussion of a later date. Why is it homicidal?" 

Stark and Banner exchanged glanced. Banner was shaking his head warningly and Stark looked on the verge of hysterical laughter.

"Tony," Pepper said, in a tone that wiped the smirk off his face. "What did you do?"

There was another moment of silence before he said, "The scepter." Banner hung his head with a sigh.

"What about it?" she asked, her voice surprisingly level.

He sighed. "We used it. We were trying to use it. To bring Ultron to life. More or less. But it failed. We were testing and none of it worked."

"Steve," Sharon said slowly. "I think you should let Thor choke him again."

"So all of this." Thor gestured at the wrecked penthouse. "Is because you played with something you don't understand."

Stark turned on him. "Okay, I'm sorry. But do you not get why we needed this? Needed to try?"

"Tony." Banner sounded tired. "Maybe this isn't the time."

"Really? You just roll over and take it when someone starts yelling?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Banner snapped.

"We didn't!" Stark nearly shouted. "Were we anywhere close to an interface?" The look on Banner's face indicated that in fact, they kind of were. Though Clint was sure Stark believed they weren't. He was the king of rationalization.

"Whatever you did, you did it here," Steve said. "We blow up three helicarriers over DC—one of which, by the way, was aiming at you—and then under my nose you make what might be functionally the same thing. Only now, harder to blow up, and sentient enough to be mad at you."

Stark threw his arms up. "Anybody remember when I flew a nuke through a wormhole?"

"No," Rhodes said dryly. "It's never come up."

"A hostile alien army came through a hole in space." Stark was obviously not letting this go. "We're standing right below it. We're the Avengers! We can bust arms dealers and clean up Hydra all day but that-" He gestured at the ceiling. "That's end game. How were you planning on beating it."

"Together," Steve said quietly, simply. With the rock solid sureness of a man who trusted his team to have his back.

Stark studied the other man a moment, looking torn between respect and pity. "You lose."

"Then we do that together too."

"You don't see the bullet that gets you, Stark," Barnes added. This was the kind of thing only a person who had died could get away with saying. "Keep looking for it and you'll break your neck before it reaches you."

There was a moment of silence, then Nat asked. "None of that answers the question of why it wants to kill us." It was very her to come back to that. The boys, they just swung at things with strength. Motivation didn't matter for smashing. But knowing how someone ticked was how she got close enough to slit their throat. 

"Because Tony was never looking for the bullet aimed at his head," Pepper said. She smiled when he turned around. "Were you?"

All of the superiority seemed to drain out of him. His shoulders slumped and he shoved his hands in his pockets. "The goal hasn't changed. Protect the things I can't live with out. The list has just. . . expanded." He gestured vaguely, encompassing the whole room, and, Clint assumed, his kid downstairs.

Pepper stepped close to give Stark a hug and the rest of them took a moment to contemplate the fact Tony Stark had made a homicidal AI to protect them.

"Peace in our time," Barnes finally said. "He said that was his mission. Is that what you told him?"

"More or less," Banner answered. "It was Tony's mantra while we were working."

Doc tilted her head. "From a purely logistical stand point, the quickest way to have peace on Earth _is_ to cause the human race to go extinct."

"Also, in its defense." They all turned to see Darcy had recovered and was now standing facing the group, Cal's arms still around her. "If everything I knew about people was learned on the internet, I'd probably want to kill everyone too."

"Oh, good, you're back," Sharon said sincerely.

"Ultron wants to kill us, and Ultron wants to destroy the world are two very different things," Hill said. "The latter of which would be awesomely served by nuclear codes—can someone on Team Technology please dredge us up a phone line? Cell service is down. I'm not calling the President from the Grand Central payphones."

"I can do it," Cal said. "I'll let you know when they're up. Come on," he added to Darcy. "You want to hand me tools?" She nodded and he guided her out of the room.

"We need to evacuate the building," Pepper said. "The residents are going to notice JARVIS is out soon. We send them to the hotel for now." Stark owned a luxury hotel on the Upper West Side along Central Park. They'd stayed there the night after the battle of New York. Clint thought that felt like years ago.

"He won't come back," Banner said. "He's too smart."

"Yes, but the building relies on JARVIS. I can't even. . ." He shook his head and took a breath. "Kids are still safe here as long as we're here, though. At least for tonight."

"Then what?" Amanda had finished taping up Sharon's foot. "He knows we're not going to sit and wait for him to hit us."

"He's calling us out," Steve said, in full Captain mode. "I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. In the morning we get the non combatants somewhere safe and the rest of us start thinking like Ultron."

"Where can we possibly go?" Pepper asked.

"Hawaii?" Banner asked. "Isolated and a big piece of property."

Several of them were already shaking their heads. "He now knows about everything we knew about," Sharon said. "Everything JARVIS knew about."

"I have a place," Stark said. "Low tech, off the grid. JARVIS isn't in it. It's not connected to the outside world. I built it after the fall of SHIELD demonstrated than anything there's a digital record of is vulnerable. So there couldn't be one. So there isn't."

"Tony," Pepper said. "Did you build the bunker under a mountain I specifically told you not to?"

"Look at how well the one under the building turned out!" She crossed her arms and made an extremely disapproving face at him. "Okay, this is not the worst secret to come out today."

"I, for one, am not going to look a gift bunker in the mouth," Sharon said. "Off the grid and underground sounds like the best place to hide from something that lives on the internet." Steve had turned to her and she cut him off before he opened his mouth. "Because I love you, I volunteer to stay with the non-combatants as security." She looked up at him. "There, now you don't have to try to find a nice way to order me to."

"I might need her," Hill said, "Depending on how things go with DC."

"I'll send Sameen, too," Stark said. "She knows the bunker protocol."

"She knows about the bunker?" Pepper asked, one eyebrow up. She'd probably already forgiven him building it, since they needed it. Not telling her about it, but telling others. . . that was different. 

What Clint was about to say wasn't going to help, but they were a little beyond white-lie omissions. "I knew about it, too," Clint said.

It was kind of comical the way every head in the room turned to look at him. "Why does he know about it?" Pepper looked back at Stark. "I understand Sameen but why him? No offense," she added over her shoulder.

"Evac protocol," he replied. "Someone has to know where it is so they can fly there. Should Stark be incapacitated." 

"I told him he could tell Romanov," Stark said, eyeing Pepper like she might smack him. "They have some No Lying policy."

"You should seriously consider looking into one of your own."

Stark sighed. "Doc knows about it, too," he said. "Though not where it is. I wanted to stock medical equipment."

Pepper gave her a wounded look and Doc held up her hands, "He didn't tell me what it was for."

She looked at Tony. "When the world is no longer in danger we are going to have a _very long_ talk."

"As long as you and Ruby are safe on the other side you can beat me with a stick while you do it," he replied.

"I have batons," Nat offered.

"Okay." Steve walked over to Sharon and helped her up. "I think we can all use a good night's sleep. Everyone go home, pack, get some rest. We'll regroup in the morning."

"Tony, stick around," Rhodes said. "The Powers That Be may have questions we can't answer."

"Pepper already yelled at me."

Nat slid her arm through Clint's. "Going my way?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday kiss_me_cassie :D

Cal got a phone line working relatively quickly, and patched it into the lines that ran upstairs so they could make their important calls. Darcy thought they'd go to bed—it was late, and they'd been drinking. But he had other work to do. Stark came down after their awkward phone calls with government officials, and they tackled the larger issue of getting the primary comm system and building functions once handled by JARVIS routed around his wreckage and working again. 

Pepper asked her to help with arrangements for the building residents that would be evacuated in the morning, and though she didn't really want to leave Cal, she felt underfoot, and figured Stark would look after him.

Something to do was good. She sure as shit wasn't going to sleep. Maybe not ever.

Staring at hotel room assignments and blueprints to some bunker under a mountain was distracting for a couple of hours. She'd changed out of her party dress into comfortable clothes and taken out her itchy, tear soaked contacts out to swap for her glasses, so at least she felt somewhat normal while she planned a mass evacuation.

She had really thought Cal was dead for a while there. The half hour or so she'd spent systematically searching the basements, expecting to find his bloody corpse or possibly be attacked by robots, had absolutely been the worst moments of her life. This was not her first end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario. It was the first time she'd had someone she really didn't think she could live without involved. If this is what Jane felt every time Thor went out with the team then Darcy really didn't know how she got through the day.

They sent the building-wide evacuation notice around dawn when they finally got comms on line, and then Darcy finally went home. Cal showed not long after, limping a little and moving very slowly. She jumped up from the couch as he said, "Ice, heating pad, and all the drugs."

"Heating pad is already on the bed. I will meet you with ice and prescription bottles forthwith."

"You are a goddess among women," he told her, and made his way to the bedroom.

She dug out the big blue gel icepack from the freezer and poured him a glass of water to take his pills with. After a detour to the bathroom cabinet for said pills, she headed into the bed room to find him sprawled on the bed, heating pad cranked up and wedged beneath him.

"Where do you want the ice?" she asked, hunkering next to him to shake out his preferred pain killer and anti-inflammatory cocktail into her palm.

"I got it," he said, taking the icepack and tucking it behind his neck. He took the pills she held out and then settled back. "Stupid robot. I was looking forward to peeling you out of that dress."

"I'm afraid it might be toast." She climbed into the other side of the bed and curled her fingers around his hand. Cuddling when he was trying to unknot his back was kind of awkward. "The run down the fire stairs and trek through the labs didn't do it any favors."

He turned his head enough to look at her. "I can't believe you came looking for me."

Given she had also threatened the frikking Hulk, she wasn't entirely sure she'd been in her right mind at the time. Might be best not to mention that. "I didn't want you to be alone," she said softly. "Whatever had happened to you."

He sighed and looked at the ceiling, mostly because that was the most comfortable position for his neck. "I didn't know anything was really wrong. Once I figured out that JARVIS was down, I assumed that his systems had been overloaded or damaged from running at full burn for so long. Then I shut a bunch of periphery things down so it didn't get worse, and came back upstairs. If I'd know what was actually going on, and I'm down in the server room?" A fine shudder passed through him.

Her hand tightened on his. Such thoughts had been running her through head from the moment the robot thing had said it had "killed the other guy." Images of Cal alone in the server room, dead or dying, had pushed her down the stairs. "For about an hour there, I really thought you were dead." Tears threatened and she looked up at the ceiling, taking deep breaths. He'd just feel bad and was in no condition to hug her. "It was scary."

"I have a laser torch down there," he said. "Would cut the floor clear to the train tunnels below. Also can be used as a weapon. I think it would even work on robots."

"That's actually very reassuring." She stroked her thumb over the back of his hand. "Are you going to be mobile enough to evacuate tomorrow?"

"Are we evacuating?"

Right. He'd been busy while she was staring at names and hotel room lists. "Yes. They're sending everyone who lives here but isn't an Avenger loved one to the hotel Stark owns. Avenger families are going to some off the grid bunker the robot doesn't know about."

He paused. "All of them?"

"All of who?"

"The family members."

She sighed. "No, just immediate people that live in the building. Like Amanda wanted to call and warn her sisters and Jane was worried about her mom, but there's just not enough space and once you start where do you end? Team Nerd seems pretty confident Ultron will focus on the core Avengers anyway so hopefully it's a moot point." She paused. "We have a spot in the bunker."

That was apparently worth turning his head. "What?"

"We were originally on the hotel list. I picked us a nice one. It had a spa tub. Then Thor came in and said that Jane was refusing to go if I didn't go. Like literally, she said she'd go to the hotel or whatever but wasn't going to hide in a bunker knowing I was out here and in danger. Stark started arguing and Thor said I'd followed Jane around and risked my life for both of them and a whole lot of other flattering stuff and then _Jane_ showed up and added to the arguing. When they finally said okay, she can come I piped up that I wasn't going anywhere without you and Hill said that if the world ended she was still going to want tech support and Stark gave up and said we could come." She paused to take a breath. "The bunker is an old missile silo that's still being renovated. There's not really 'rooms' but I gave us a little spot in the corner. Kind of private. "

"Sounds romantic," he said. "And Jane is a good friend."

"She is," Darcy agreed. "Makes me feel guilty for kind of wanting to pack our shit and get the hell out of Dodge."

"Permanently?" he asked quietly.

She sighed, glancing around the room. "I don't know. I've done the whole end of the world thing twice now. You did it once. I feel like killer robots and AIs and scepters of infinite power. . . it's a little out of our pay grade, right? I don't have a shield or hammer or even a suit. Though apparently Pepper trusts me with a really big fucking gun."

"We could move to California," he mused. "Go work in Silicon Valley." 

"I bet my personality would fit in far better there than here. And with the references we can get?" She shook her head. "I could spend my days off laying by the pool in a little bikini."

"Man that sounds tempting," he said. "All of it."

"Yes, it does. Live a nice simple life. No aliens. No buildings under attack." They were both quiet a moment. "We're not going to do that, are we?"

"Probably not, no." He turned the heating pad off, dropped it on the floor and rolled over so she could rub is back. It had been almost two years now. They had this down to a routine. "I mean. . . if you really wanted to. . ."

"I know." If she really wanted to, he'd go. If she'd honestly reached her limit and wanted to go be an admin to some CFO at a tech company, he'd start packing as soon as he could stand up. But that wasn't what she wanted and both of them knew it. 

"The girls and I talk about it sometimes," she said, working out the knots along his spine. "Those of use who got sucked in accidentally. Jane and Amanda and Violet. Even Pepper sometimes. About whether it would be better to be normal. To not know how disturbingly often we come close to world destruction."

"We can at least choose to stay or go," Cal offered. "We both remain in the orbit of superheroes because we want to help. If we go, we go together. Jane for example, doesn't have that option."

"That's true." She let one hand wander up to rub his neck. "Violet thinks they need us. The superheroes. Both to have a face to whatever it is they're saving and to do the things they wouldn't think to do. Someone to organize the evacuation and keep the phones on can be just as important as the one swinging the hammer."

"Hill told me something when she came to recruit me. I was still in the hospital at the time, not sure if I'd walk again. I asked if she'd rather hire someone more physically capable, and she said she wasn't hiring me for my legs. Then I asked if this was a pity job. She told me if this whole thing was going to work—the Avengers, I mean, without SHIELD as backup—she needed everyone, from Cap down to the support level like us, to be willing and able to still do their job while in mortal danger. Not everybody can, but I'd just proven I could. Something about really meeting someone when you hold them over a volcano. I was on a lot of painkillers, but I remember it being a nice speech."

Darcy laughed a little. "She's good at those. Though I think she steals a lot of them from TV." Finishing her back rub, she shifted to lay next to him. "So. Into the bunker with the women, kids and pets?"

"Until they need us."

"And then we will show up with our badass normal skills."

He reached out and laced their fingers together. "Sounds like a deal."

She leaned over and kissed his temple. "I set the alarm on my phone so I can pack. Goodnight, Cal."

*

Sharon had ordered Steve to follow his own advice. He was always on about how bodies needed sleep and he didn't like leading overly tired troops. He'd tried to argue this was an exception, and he wasn't tired anyway. She'd countered with an offer to tire him out.

It probably wasn't the most appropriate response to a possible pending disaster, but Steve imagined they weren't the only couple on the floor who had the same inclination. 

"You really don't mind?" he asked her, in the dark afterwards. "Going to the bunker?"

She shifted, skin sliding against his. "I'm not entirely sure how to answer that. I'm willing to do it, isn't that enough?"

"I do occasionally make an effort to not behave like a man who was born in 1918." He turned his head toward her. "I do need security I can trust there. I just don't know how believable you find that."

"Leaving that many non combatants, including children, without sufficient protection defeats the purpose of squirreling them away in the first place." It sounded much better when she said it. "I'd rather be with you. I want to watch your back. I hate sending you out without me, knowing I might not see you again. But I know I could end up a liability for you, too. So I'll do my part. Doesn't mean it's my first choice. Or that I'm happy about it."

"There's something else I need from you. I don't know that I'd trust anyone else to do it."

"That sounds kind of ominous, baby."

"It kind of is." He shifted onto his side, and brushed her hair back with his fingers. "It's got blast doors. You couldn't get in there with a nuke. It's kind of the point. I can't get them all focused and functioning together if they're worried, and we've just put all of the Avengers's greatest weaknesses in one spot. I need you to not open that door. _No matter what_."

She sighed softly and leaned her face into his touch. "I promise, Steve."

"Even if they kill me," he said very quietly. "Even if they use me as leverage."

He heard her sniffle a little and she scooted closer, pressing her face into his shoulder. "I promise to make sure everyone is safe and otherwise protected before I go avenge you." A beat. "Pun not intended."

That was about the most he'd promise, too. "I love you."

"I love you, too. Though sometimes being your fiancee kind of sucks."

"I don't think being my wife is going to be any better. But you're not locked into that yet."

She laughed, stroking his back lightly. "I suppose picking a date will have to wait until you finish saving the world. Again."

"As soon as I get back. I promise."

"Okay." She pressed a kiss into his skin. "I keep thinking this will get easier, but it doesn't."

"War is hell," he murmured.

She didn't speak right away and he felt like there might have been something left unsaid there. When she did speak her tone was lighter. "I feel better when Bucky goes with you. He's got your back."

"I have every intention of coming back with all my pieces."

"Good. Because I intend to do a thorough check when you return."

In the morning they took a shower together—just to actually get clean, but they seemed to share the same desire to be touching as much as possible, in the little time they had left. Then he spent ten minutes helping get Barnabas into his carrier. It was a two man job.

He was late for his meeting with Hill, who summarized everything they'd found so far. Ultron was clearly replicating, and showing up at facilities all over the world stealing things for whatever his nefarious plans were. He'd also killed Strucker, and wiped him from their databanks. 

Which is how they ended up going through boxes and boxes of paper files that had been rescued years ago from a SHIELD archive facility outside of the Triskellion. Steve even ordered the evac preparations stopped so _everyone_ could help look through them. Pepper and Darcy were particularly good with files. He was especially grateful Violet brought the kids up. Thor still seemed pretty angry at Stark, but he was immensely fond of Violet's little girl and it served to both distract him, and put him on company manners.

With the kids entertained by Thor and some toys she'd brought up, Violet joined the ladies going through files. She sped through two boxes, muttering something about learning to speed read in college. Halfway through a stack of files on known associates she stopped and held one out. "Tony, do you know this guy? Says he's an arms dealer."

He leaned back in his chair to squint at the file, then frowned and got up. "I do." He grabbed the file from her and spread it out on a table, knocking other things aside. "Does a lot of black market stuff out of South Africa." Steve was glad he wasn't alone in giving him a look. "There's conventions," Stark said defensively. "You meet people, we never did business." He looked at Violet. "Why did you point him out?"

She lifted a shoulder. "He looks creepy and he sells weapons."

Steve looked at the picture, and had to concede that he was, in fact, creepy looking. The neck tattoos didn't help. 

"He may be hot air," Stark said. "I remember him going on and on about something new he was working on. Complete game changer. I can't remember when, but back when we made weapons so you're talking almost a decade at least. If the game had changed, we'd have noticed."

Across the table, Amanda reached out and bent the top of the file so she could see the top, upside down. "I've seen that. The brand on his neck. When I was in Africa."

Steve looked up at her. "What does it mean?" 

She tugged the file out of Stark's hand so she could look at it right side up. "It was a punishment for thieves. But only for those who had stolen something very precious, that couldn't be replaced."

"What country?" Bucky asked.

Tapping the file against her mouth, she hummed a moment. "Wakanda, I think."

Long, long ago, Howard had explained the provenance of the vibranium in his shield. The small amount originally smuggled out, supposedly from a meteor. The bloody expedition the British government had undertaken to try and get more. Losses had been so great they never tried again. Nobody got any of that metal. Nobody. But if Ultron did. . .

He looked over at Stark, who clearly had the same thoughts, based on the look on his face. Howard would have told him about it, too.

Steve didn't know how he knew. He just did. This was the guy Ultron was looking for, so he could make himself completely indestructible. " _Fuck_."

"Hey, language," Banner said. "Kids."

They all glanced over at where they were playing. Ada was engrossed in whatever Thor was showing her, but Neil, Violet's son, noticed the sudden adult attention. He grinned, put his hands in the air and said brightly, "Ah, fuck it."

Steve put his hands over his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Violet sighed deeply. "No. He knew that one already. He's just showing off."

"Are we going to ignore that Banner just scolded Captain America for his language?" Bucky asked.

"I'm sorry," Steve said again. "It just slipped out." Behind him he could hear Sharon commenting about all the languages he could curse in. This was going to become a thing, he just knew it.

He reached across the table and took the file back from Amanda. He glanced over at Stark, who was also looking serious. "If he got out of Wakanda with some vibranium. . ." Stark started.

"Yeah," Steve replied. "Where is this guy?"

*

Violet had been a high school teacher in her previous life. She had never had to deal with the drama of separation anxiety on the first day of school. She did, however, vividly remember the first time she left Ada with a sitter. She'd written three pages of instructions and she and Hal had been twenty minutes late for their dinner reservations.

So she had a tremendous amount of sympathy for Amanda, who was cuddling Edith against her chest and describing exactly how the five month old liked her bottle.

They were downstairs in the empty garage, loading vans and SUVs to be driven out to one of Stark's planes. Bucky had apparently finished loading their things. "Everything's in that’s ours. Stark is installing car seats with precision bordering on neuroses, so I'm letting him do Edie's."

Amanda nodded and pressed a kiss to the tangle of dark curls on the baby's head. "And she likes to sleep on her stomach. I know back is recommended but she won't sleep that way, You can try to get her on her side, that's okay. Make sure there's nothing in the pod except the pink and white knit blanket because it has a wide enough stitch she can breathe through it if it gets on her face."

"I got it," Violet said. "I did raise two babies."

"I know, I know." Amanda sighed and held the baby tighter. Edie was going to start complaining soon. "I just don't know when I'll see her again."

"You can go," Bucky said. "If you want to. Go to the bunker."

"No, she can't," Steve said from behind them. He had a certain voice when he was in Captain mode, the sort that made Violet want to call him Sir. It was in full force at the moment. "We need her. I'm sorry. But if someone needs to go with the baby, at least for this trip we could spare you."

Bucky scowled, even as Amanda looked thoughtful. Before either of them could reply Darcy walked past with a armful of what looked like computer equipment and said, "That's true. You would be better ditching one of your four tanks than your only priest."

Steve frowned and looked at Bucky. "I have no idea what that meant."

"It's a gaming reference," Amanda said.

Cal came up behind Darcy. "Would he be a tank, though? He's more ranged DPS."

"He does melee, though," she argued. "With the arm."

"He _can_ take quite a bit of damage," Cal said. "Though maybe. . ." Violet didn't hear the rest of the sentence, as they'd drifted out of earshot.

Amanda took a deep breath and handed Edie to her. "We'll both go. I'd never forgive myself if you stayed behind and someone got hurt because we were short handed."

Violet tucked Edith onto her shoulder. "I promise, I will take care of her as if she was my own."

"Carseat's in," Tony said. "Should be good to head out soon."

Dragging it out would only make it worse. "I'll buckle her in?" Amanda nodded and reached out to pat Edie's back, then turned on her heel and walked off. 

Bucky smiled and leaned over to kiss the top of his daughter's head. "Thank you," he said quietly to Violet. Then he went to follow his wife. There was a line of goodbyes going on, like a troop transport shipping out to war. Or the life boat line on the Titanic. 

Bad analogy.

None of the women were crying or carrying on, just quiet conversations between couples. Goodbyes and good lucks. Which was good, because her daughter was putting on a display of hysterics that was _worthy_ of the lifeboat line on the Titanic. They hadn't even told her about JARVIS yet. 

"I don't want to go!" she was yelling as Violet started buckling Edie into her seat. "I'm going to miss school!"

Poor Bruce was doing his best to remain calm and reassuring. "Your teacher emailed Mom everything you need. She and Darcy and Pepper will help you."

"But there's a field trip this week! I want to stay here."

Bruce looked helpless. "This is to keep you safe, Ada. There's a scary robot-"

"I don't care. I don't like new places, I like it _here_."

"Ada," Violet said firmly, with just enough irritation to cut off her next complaint. "Deep breath."

For a moment, she looked like she might hold her breath just on principle. Then she took one deep breath. Then another. Violet dug in the bag in front of the kids and pulled out a blanket and a sport bottle of juice. She handed them to Ada. "I'm sorry you're upset. I know it's hard when you have to do something and don't get to make decisions. But this is non negotiable. If you continue to scream you are losing iPad privileges."

She settled for sticking her lip out and quietly crying instead. At least it was better than the yelling. Thankfully Jane came by and leaned in the SUV to talk to her. "It's going to be great. Wait until you see how many stars you can see when we get there."

Ada sniffled dramatically. "Really?"

"Uh-huh. No light pollution from the city."

Violet squeezed Jane's shoulder in thanks, and went around to get Neil a blanket and sippy as well. Jane eventually went back to the van behind them, where she was riding with Sharon and a big van full of baggage, plus three cats and a dog. The front SUV was Pepper and Ruby, Ruby's bodyguard, and Col. Rhodes who would fly the plane. 

The kids were settled, Darcy and Cal and climbed in up front, and Violet realized everyone was waiting on them. Bruce stuck his head in the car to say goodbye to the kids. Necessary, certainly, but it got Ada crying again.

Finally, he calmed her enough for a hug and kiss on the cheek. He ruffled Neil's hair and said goodbye, then closed the door and turned to her. "I promise not to cry," she told him with a little smile.

"You can cry. Tony says Pepper cries."

"Pepper's a pretty crier. She just does the red rimmed eye thing and dabs at her nose. If I start crying it'll be ugly."

"Never," he said sincerely.

Stepped closer, she wrapped her arms around him. "I love you, be safe."

She felt him press his face into her hair, arms squeezing her tight. "I love you back."

Everyone else was waiting, and so she sighed and leaned back. "I'll see you when it's over."

He cupped her face and kissed her mouth, then her forehead, before letting go and stepping away. Now the tears were threatening, so she climbed into the car. Bruce closed the door behind her and backed away from the van as Darcy started the engine.

They drove out to a small airport in New Jersey and parked right on the tarmac. Instead of getting on one of the shiny Stark Jets, they were loaded onto an old commercial airliner that looked, from the interior, like it had been in service in the 70's. She assumed it was for cover. She could only imagine where Stark had dug it up.

Off load took almost as long as loading had. She and Pepper wrangled the kids, using the floating pods for the babies so she could carry Neil up the steps to the plane. He liked planes and such in theory, but wasn't entirely sure about actually being on one. Fortunately, the prospect excited Ada enough to make her forget about her earlier grief.

"Not quite as nice as the one we flew to Hawaii, is it?" Pepper commented. "Or, you know, any airline we could have bought tickets on."

Violet shrugged. "It has its own charm."

"I used to envy Amanda," she said. "Because she got to go."

"I don't envy any of them going. But I can't imagine having to leave your baby behind and go into a battle." She glanced out the airplane window. "Alternately, I think Sharon would give just about anything to go with them."

"This does seem like an all-hands-on-deck sort of scenario."

"I feel better knowing she's here," Violet admitted. "We are solely lacking in fighters. But I sympathize with the desire to be with the person she loves."

"The last fight Tony had that I was physically at, he thought I was dead for a portion of it. He still occasionally has nightmares about it."

"Didn't you then beat the shit out of the guy who'd kidnapped you and tried to kill Tony?"

"Well. Yes. I was under the influence of some pretty crazy enhancements at the time." They had the babies strapped in, and the plane was getting airborne. "But in general, I can't help. I'm not all juiced up anymore. What could I do about something that could get through the suit? If he gets killed, I. . ." She swallowed. "I don't want to watch."

"Neither do I. Especially considering how. . . in the middle of it the Other Guy is. He can be injured and feel pain. It hurts to watch."

"Sometimes makes you wish you'd fallen in love with an accountant, doesn't it?"

"My mother was actually trying to set me up with a forensic accountant right before Bruce and I became official." Pepper laughed a little. "I try to remind myself that my husband had one of the safest, most boring jobs in the world and he died at thirty two. Nothing is certain in life."

Pepper nodded. Then she said. "Company's nice. For a long time I waited alone."

Violet glanced around the plane. Sharon and Sameen were next to each other, going over watch plans and, from what she could overhear, comparing armories. Darcy and Cal had sat across from Ada and Darcy was showing her how to use an old Gameboy, to the delight of her daughter. Jane had her laptop out and was typing something, chewing on her lip between flurries of productivity. "We are quite the support group."

They landed a few hour later on an ancient airstrip. Violet couldn't tell where they were, only that there were mountains in the distance. As they began disembarking, an armored vehicle pulled up, followed by a large van. A man hopped out of the first one and approached. "You must be Ms. Potts. I'm Jack, manager of the facility."

Pepper shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. We're aware the bunker is not yet ready for occupation, but we were told there would be space for us to set up." From what was loaded on the plane, Violet suspected at least one Manhattan outdoor sports store had been emptied of its stock of camping gear.

Jack smiled. "We have plenty of space ma'am. Hydroponics hasn't been fitted out yet and the long-term food stores aren't in, but as we're not at nuclear or biological attack scenarios, we're able to bring in food from the outside. Basic necessities and food supplies were delivered about an hour ago, but they're still on pallets as we haven't had time to stock the units." He scanned the crowd. "Mr. Stark told us headcount but didn't specify how many units."

Pepper frowned. "Units?"

Darcy had joined them and pulled up the blueprints she had on her iPad. "My plans don't show any completed units." 

She turned the tablet for him to see and Jack made an incredulous little noise. "My goodness, those are very out of date. Whoever gave you those must have sent the wrong file."

"Those came from Mr. Stark," Pepper said. She sighed. "Doesn't matter. What's in a unit?"

"Half or full level. Half levels are two bedrooms, full levels are 3-5 bedrooms. Furniture and fixtures are in, we powered up the digital windows this morning and they're all working. However, we did not have time to fill the pool."

Pepper was staring at him so hard Violet was concerned steam was about to come out of her ears. Darcy took one look at her and decided it was time to start admining. "Violet and Pepper will each need full units. Sameen can sleep in Pepper's unit for added security. We'll need three half units now for me and my boyfriend, Jane, and Sharon. You may also want to prep two other half units for when the team arrives after their mission."

Violet put a hand on Pepper's arm. "You should breathe."

" _How long has he been working on this place_?!"

"That works too."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for extreme nerdity, canon appropriate violence, worst fears coming real, angst, and Violet swearing.

"I'm not really sure I'd be a priest, though. I wear armor."

Banner tipped his head back, considering. "Well, they're coming at it from a modern interpretation. When I was playing you'd probably be a druid."

"But that's still a subdivision of cleric, aren't they fairly limited in armor and weapon type?"

"That's true. Also, they lost the special abilities against the undead, so maybe you'd be a more obscure subclass of cleric. They could use metal weapons after the first edition."

James's voice came over the comm system. "You are the two biggest nerds I have ever heard. I am resisting the urge to knock you over and take your lunch money."

Amanda glared at the ceiling. "Well that's what happens when you leave us in the plane by ourselves."

"I don't know what they're talking about," Natasha said. "I know about sleepover party games from the '80's, and I don't know what they're talking about."

"I do." That was Stark. He always had a faint echo when he was in the suit. "And it is exactly as nerdy as you think it is."

"Does this mean you don't want us to start running DnD games for the team?"

"I was a hell of a dungeon master," Banner offered.

"That's them," Stark said. "Time to go to work."

She and Banner went quiet, listening to the team confront Ultron and the two enhanced kids they'd encountered at the Hydra base. From a distance, and with only sound, it was sort of eerie how similar Tony and the AI he'd had a hand in creating were.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet."

"He beat me by one second." Banner sighed and covered his eyes with a hand.

Ultron was now on to telling Steve to stop trying to pretend he could live without war. Amanda made a face. "Stark has never been very good at insulting Steve, has he?"

Banner shrugged. "I think to actually insult Steve you have to play far dirtier than Tony is willing to go. He's a dick, but he's not an asshole."

She pointed at him. "That is a very important distinction." There was a crackle of energy and some banging on the comms and she glanced up at the ceiling, where the speakers were. "Festivities appear to have begun."

They didn't hear much useful, after that. Just clanking and crashing, weapons fire and heavy breathing. Funny she could pick James's breathing out from the others. Sounded remarkably similar to other heavy breathing activities. 

"I'm finding the lack of wisecracking worrying," Banner said.

He had a point there. Not even Stark was snarking and she was fairly certain he had some sort of condition that caused his head to explode if he wasn't sarcastic at least once a minute. "I don't start panicking until there's silence," she said, half serious.

Steve, out of breath and irritated, said, "Stay down kid," amongst the rest of the grunting and panting and she and Banner exchanged an amused, relieved look.

It lasted exactly as long as it took Thor to warn them about the enhanced girl trying to get in his head and promptly going quiet. After that, the sounds of battle slowly started to dwindle into eerie silence.

Amanda hit the button on the comms to turn their outgoing back on. "Guys? Are you okay?" Nothing. She exchanged another look with Banner. "James? Report." Silence.

Suddenly they heard Barton say, "Done the whole mind control thing. Not a fan." It was followed by a crash and glass breaking, then he muttered, "Yeah, you'd better run." 

"Barton?" Banner asked. "We got a code green?"

"Rogers?" Barton tried, and there was silence. "Something fucked up is going on. Stay there. Doc, be ready."

"Copy that." She got up and headed for the rear of the jet, hitting the button for the ramp. Banner followed, despite her trying to wave him back. Squinting, she studied the ship on the other side of the grassy field they'd landed in. From the outside it looked perfectly normal, or at least as normal as it had when they'd arrived.

Then she spotted the two figures hunkered together at the stern. She could see why the others kept referring to the twins as kids. Their file said they were in their mid-twenties but childhood malnutrition and any number of other factors left them looking thin and fragile.

At least until the girl looked up and locked eyes with her.

"Banner," Amanda said reaching back to push him. "Get back in the fucking jet."

There was a sense of motion, like a blur, and then suddenly the girl was in front of her. Amanda didn't even have time to move, when suddenly she was somewhere else.

It was sterile looking, like a lab, but the equipment was old, industrial. It was. . . familiar, but not somewhere she'd been. The smell of blood coated her throat. She took a few steps forward, all but tripping over a body. Once she noticed one there were others. Dozens of dead men, wearing white lab coats and black armor. 

Bending to take a pulse, she saw her hands covered in blood. It soaked into her sleeves, staining under her nails. There was a knife in her hand, long and razor sharp, also covered in blood.

Her knees buckled, dropping her to the ground. The knife clattered and she scrubbed at her hands, trying to get the blood off. She tried screaming, but it didn't do any good. All of them. She'd killed all of them.

"It's what we do, you know," said a voice behind her. Steve. She turned and they were all standing there.

"You are one of us," Barton said.

She looked at James, who didn't look like himself. He looked like the Winter Soldier again. "I'm a killer. And so are you."

"No," she whispered. "That's not. . . this isn't what we do."

"Of course it is," Natasha said reasonably. "There are only killers here." 

"No! Nononono." She started to scrub at her hands again, trying to get the blood off. She had to get it off. 

*

_Arm position. Elbows bent. On pointe. Legs straight. Forward lean._

"You never broke."

Arms straight. Cradle the gun, don't grip it. Three rapid shots.

Madame's voice echoes sharply. "Again, Natalia."

She doesn't want to be back here. She shouldn't be back here.

"You never miss." Three holes in the target, lined up one by one. This is all she is. This is all they made her. 

The dancers move together, all in a row. They broke. She did not. She has no feelings. She is cold. Hard. Marble.

The paper target's gone. Now there's a man, a black bag over his head. This is the last step.

She should ask who he is. It doesn't matter who he is. He is the mission. He is the target. She is the weapon, nothing more. A gun doesn't ask who it is killing.  
 Three rapid shots. Blood blooms on his chest. Madame smiles, pleased. "What is your place in the world?"

"I have no place in the world," she replies, though the words feel false in her mouth.

"That's right." Madame pulls the bag off his head, to reveal Clint, blood trickling from his mouth.

She screams.

_Love is for children._

"Natasha!" He gave her shoulders a shake, and as the dream receded Nat had a fleeting thought that he might slap her like an old movie. But all he did was look worried. For a moment he was clear, and then a moment later she blinked and there was blood trickling from his mouth.

Had she killed him? Why was he talking? Where _were_ they? Her brain was full of mush. 

"Everybody's down," Clint was saying to. . . someone. "There's no help here."

"I'm calling in Veronica," said the other voice in her ear. Stark. It would have been better if he'd been under the bag. This was all his fault wasn't it?

"Tasha," Clint tried again. "Honey, please. We have to move."

She took a deep breath. Moving was probably good. She didn't like it here. And if he was talking and moving then she hadn't shot him. That was also good. 

She nodded and gripped his arms, letting him stand her up. Before she took a step she pressed her hand on his chest and checked for bullet holes, just in case. His heart was beating steady and strong, so she nodded again and started walking.

Wherever they were going, they encountered Barnes halfway there. He stood stock still and stared them down, eyes as cold as ice. "I killed her," he said. "I killed them both." Clint frowned in confusion, and Nat realized he was speaking Russian. 

She could feel Clint brace himself for a fight. "Rogers? Doc? One of you please fucking answer me."

"I'm here." Clint all but sagged in relief at the sound of Steve's voice. 

"Are you sane enough to talk Barnes down?"

"Give me a second."

She should do something to help. Clint needed her help. "I thought I killed him," she said in Russian, and Barnes's eyes snapped to her. "But he's alive. There's hope."

Confusion melted a bit of the ice, just as Steve appeared behind him, looking wrung out but more or less present. "They found the plane," Clint said, talking to Steve. "Hulk's out, Stark's in pursuit." He leaned over the catwalk rail, looking at something. Nat didn't turn. "Thor appears to be less mighty than he thought."

Steve grimaced, eyeing Barnes. "Right. Let's try to get to the plane." He stopped suddenly, as if something had occurred to him. "You go ahead, I'll wrangle Bucky and Thor. Report on Doc's condition when you get there." He said it with a particular emphasis that Nat's muddled brain couldn't really follow. Clint seemed to understand because he nodded sharply and started steering her along the catwalk again.

Things were slowly getting less foggy. They were in a ship. They'd been fighting someone. Or trying to stop someone from doing something bad. That's what they did, they stopped bad things, which was the opposite of what she'd been trained to do, but she liked doing it. She was more than just a weapon, if she was helping people.

They left the ship, and hiked across mud and grass to the quinjet. The ramp was down, and Doc was sitting on it, staring into space. Clint brought Nat to the ramp and told her to sit, then went to check the other woman. Into the comm, he said, "Spaced out like everyone, alive and otherwise unharmed."

Even Nat could recognize the relief in Steve's voice when he replied, "That's all I wanted to hear. Coming with the others now. Maybe she and Bucky can shake each other out of it."

"He thought he'd killed her," Nat offered, checking to make sure it was in English. Clint turned to look at her and she blinked. "That's what he said."

"What did you see?" he asked. He fished out a small flashlight and shined it in Doc's eyes. "Come on, I have wounded people," he muttered. "Wake the hell up." 

"I was in the Red Room," Nat said, sorting out the jumble of images. "Training. I had to shoot a man with a bag over his head. He was you." He was looking at her again. "You could shake her," she offered. "It helped snap me out of it."

He nodded, once, and shook Doc. "Amanda."

Across the field, Nat could see Thor come out of the ship, staggering like a drunk towards them. Steve came after him, walking slow and tired, trudging like an old man. He was tugging Barnes along with a grip on his metal arm. The sniper was walking stiffly, with none of the lethal fluid grace he usually had. Nat was just aware enough to recognize how incredibly fucked up they were right now.

Amanda sucked in a sharp breath, like a swimmer coming up for air. She jerked away from Clint, glancing around wildly. "Blood. There was-" She broke off, blinking in confusion as she took in her surroundings. Then she scrubbed a hand over her face, taking her glasses off to press at her eyes. "Fuck."

*

Cal had expected hiding in a bunker to be more camping gear and MREs and less movie theater and state of the art, multi screen command center. He probably should have given Stark more credit.

They were cut off from the internet, but said command center had news feeds, as well as feeds from all the security cameras. With little else to do - and the movie theater commandeered by the kids and a Disney film - he and Darcy had claimed the TVs as their own and were monitoring reports.

"So Hulk has to be a berserker. Cap is probably a paladin. Nat's a rogue, obviously. What are we calling Barnes?"

Along with extremely important conversations on deep and thought provoking topics.

He looked over at Darcy, kicked back in her chair, feet on the arm of his, scribbling on a notebook with her glasses slid down her nose. "Some sort of hybrid," he said. "Druid maybe?"

She waved her pen at him. "That's true. He does DPS as well as brute strength. What about Stark?"

"Technomage."

That got him a look over the top of her glasses. "So we're just throwing genre guidelines out entirely, then?"

"There is no game he'd exist in anyway. He's mostly DPS but he's armed better than Steve, who is sometimes their primary tank. Plus flight. Would you want to PVP against that? The game would be called Iron Man's Drone Army because nobody would play anything else."

"That's true. For proper game dynamics we'd need to nerf him." She tapped the pen against her notepad a minute. "Right, mage it is. Barton's a ranger. I guess London counts as his pet?"

"Maybe? Barton's kind of one of those 'I work alone' types." He did his best Batman voice when he said that.

She laughed and poked him with her foot. "He's almost an engineer, though. He's got the trick arrows." She scribbled a moment. "I'll come back to him."

"That leaves Thor." 

"He's gotta be a mage, right? Lighting powers!"

"In plate armor who can bench press cars?"

She pursed her lips in a way he found kind of adorable. "Barbarian with an epic hammer?"

"Pretty sure Mjolnir's at least legendary. Actually, it's _literally_ legendary." A flash of green on one of the news feeds on the bazillion little screens caught Cal's eye, and he sat up a little. "Hang on." He tapped a couple of buttons and brought it up on the large display. It was footage of the Hulk rampaging through some city. Johannesburg.

"Oh, shit," Darcy said from beside him. 

He reached over and hit the button for the facility-wide PA. "I need Pepper and Violet up in the command center right now."

Iron Man had just engaged, decked out in super-sized armor that could handle the car the Hulk threw at him, when Violet and Pepper appeared in the door. Pepper had her mouth open to speak but his snapped shut when she saw the screen.

"Oh, my God," Violet whispered, one hand covering her mouth.

"It's on all the channels now," Cal said quietly.

"Veronica's been up there five years now," Pepper said. "They've never come close to needing it. What _happened_?"

The news cameras lost sight of them as they tossed each other around the city. There was a series of shots of people fleeing and screaming. When the camera focused on Iron Man and Hulk again, Tony had him pinned and was punching him in the face repeatedly with a pistoning arm.

Violet had to look away. "I don't understand. The bedtime story worked fine last time. He shouldn't- I need to get to a phone or something. If he hears me -"

"We can't call out from here," Darcy said gently. "For safety."

"Then I'll go topside, use the satellite phone-"

"No, you won't." Sharon appeared behind them in the doorway. "The doors don't open unless I get the okay from the team." She pointed to the screen. "That is not okay."

"It will be even less okay if one of them kills the other!" Pepper practically yelled.

Sharon crossed her arms and spoke in a calm, reasonable tone that kind of reminded Cal of Rogers's Captain Voice. "Look at the screen. Do you see anything missing?" She paused a beat. "Where are the rest of them? Where are Steve and Nat herding the civilians? Where is Amanda treating the injured? Bucky and Barton have tranq guns they bring on every mission with Banner. Why aren't they shooting him and stopping this? You said it yourself, something has gone wrong and until we know what it is no one is leaving this bunker. If you do you put us all at risk. Door stays closed. Captain's order."

"We are not fucking Avengers," Violet said and Darcy's eyes widened at the curse.

"Today you are," Sharon told her.

"I'm not sure how we'd call them anyway," Cal said. "With JARVIS down I have no idea how to hook into their comms. They're not on regular phone service, they're a closed loop JARVIS could patch us into."

The fight visibly went out of Violet. She covered her face in her hands and Cal could hear her start to cry. Pepper put her arms around the smaller woman just as Darcy said, "I think it might be over anyway."

Everyone but Violet looked up at the screen to see an image of an unconscious Hulk in what looked like a collapsed building.

*

Stark had picked the Hulk up and took off a second later. Then the footage became about talking heads, and Cal reached to turn the sound off before Sharon could ask him to. 

"Why don't we go back downstairs," Pepper said to Violet. "They'll call us if they hear anything."

Sharon didn't hear if Violet replied, but stepped aside as they left the command center. She looked back at Darcy and Cal and waited until the other women were down the stairs before saying, "If anything else happens call me first on the walkie talkies, not the PA system."

Cal turned and looked at her for a moment. "I could get into their system if I went back to New York."

She let out a long slow breath. "Stark was taking him somewhere. I have to trust he'll come here or contact us in some way regardless of what happened to the rest of them. Door stays closed. No exceptions."

"I understand. I understand why the door stays closed and I'm not trying to be difficult. Just noting that I am objectively the lowest priority protectee here and the best person to send out if you _do_ need someone to go figure out what the hell happened without anybody pinging a satellite from these coordinates."

"I appreciate the offer. I do. I'm going to give them twenty four hours to get in touch with us. Then we'll start talking other options."

"You're a good at this," Darcy said. "I see why Steve put you in charge."

Sharon resisted throwing herself at the other woman in a hug. Or bursting into tears. "Thank you, I needed to hear that."

Darcy stood up and held out her arms a little. "Would you like to not be Cap 2.0 for a sec?"

She nodded and stepped closer, letting Darcy wrap her arms around her. She leaned her head down onto the brunette's shoulder and held on tight. 

"You want to wait up here with Cal and I?" she asked.

"No. Thank you. I think I want to be alone for a little while." Darcy gave her one last squeeze before letting her go. Sharon gave her a grateful smile. "If you're willing to hang out here a while longer I'll take a shift near dinner time."

"We could stay here all night. Cal and I spend a lot of time voluntarily basking in the glow of multi-monitor setups."

"We absorb vitamins from the LEDs," he said. "It's a nerd thing."

Sharon smiled. "All right. If you want to use a couple of the unimportant monitors to game you have my permission, as acting Cap."

"You are a kind and benevolent ruler."

"I try." She left them to it, heading down two flights to her unit. Later, she would go check in with Violet and Pepper, though God knew what she'd say. It was one thing to miss and worry for your loved one. Quite another to see them being beaten on television.

Once in her apartment, she sank onto the couch and pulled out her phone. There was no signal, of course, but she turned it on to look at the picture on the home screen. It was a selfie of her and Steve on the roof at Rockefeller Center, after he'd proposed. He'd teased her because she'd made them move twice to get just the right lighting.

She thought about the picture of Peggy he'd carried around in his compass and the picture of him - pre serum - that Peggy had treasured for her entire life. Sharon wondered if Steve had anything like that of her. Maybe one of his sketches tucked into his armor somewhere.

The apartments were lined with fake windows, LCD screens that displayed video footage of views. You could tune it to live feed from cameras outside, or a selection of pre-recorded scenery shots. Be anywhere. The outside feed was best for maintaining circadian rhythms and a sense of time, so it was what was recommended. It's what she had. But now she found herself picking up the remote and flipping through them. Many were generic, but some specific. The view out the tower windows in New York. A view of the Pacific from what she guessed was his property in Malibu, and then from his house in Hawaii. That one was so soothing she could almost smell the tropics. 

She cycled through the images once more before settling on the Hawaiian one. She'd kind of been hoping for something from Italy, to remind her of the trip she and Steve had taken, but there had only been on stock photo of the Parthenon, and it had failed to move her. Staring at the exotic flowers and rich blue sky entertained her for a while. Then she got up and put some coffee on, wandering into the bedroom as she waited for it to brew.

The bedroom had been completely furnished, with a king bed, two nightstands, and matching dressers. Sharon had unpacked the day before, for lack of anything better to do. Right now she pulled open the drawer she'd put Steve's things in and took out a shirt, inhaling his scent still clinging to the worn cotton. Figuring if she was going to wallow she might as well go whole hog, she tugged it on over her tank top and went back to get her coffee.

She was halfway through the cup when the walkie talkie crackled with Cal's voice. "Sharon? You there?"

Time to be Cap again. She picked up the walkie and pressed the button on the side. "I'm here. Report."

"A message came through on Jack's sat phone. Everybody's alive, no major injuries."

She bowed her head, letting out a long, slow breath. "That's great news. Thank you. I assume they're headed here?"

"Arrival around midnight."

Her watch read just before two in the afternoon, which meant a very long ten hours for everyone. But a light at the end of the tunnel was better than none at all. "Thanks, Cal." She tugged Steve's shirt off, leaving her in her tank top, and stood. "I'll tell the others. Let me know if anything changes."

"Got it."

Sharon headed down the stairs to the media room, looking for the rest of the ladies.


	6. Chapter 6

Everything hurt.

 Amanda had offered him pain killers, and to check him for bruised ribs or broken bones. He probably had a mild concussion. But Bruce had refused. The pain was good. It was distracting. It kept him from thinking.

He'd earned the pain.

None of the rest of them knew what to say to him. Amanda had tried to tell him the girl had gotten into all their heads. He was pretty sure he was the only one who had leveled a city, though.

Tony finished talking to Barton up front and came to crouch by Bruce's side. "We're coming up on the bunker," he said quietly. "Barton said ten minutes, fifteen at the outside."

The bunker. Violet was at the bunker. With the kids. He shouldn't go there. He shouldn't be around people anymore.

"You're not going to vanish," Tony said, raising an eyebrow when Bruce gave him a look. "What, you think I don't know how you think?"

He swallowed around the grit in his throat. "The kids-"

"Will be fine," Tony said, dead calm and certain. And serious enough Bruce knew he was scaring him. "You won't hurt the kids and neither will the Other Guy."

"He tried to hurt you."

His friend clapped him on the shoulder, Bruce flinched at the touch, but didn't move away. "But he won't hurt your kids."

"You can't possibly know that."

Tony was quiet a moment. "She showed us our worst fears. You gotta ask yourself. . . what did you see? More importantly, what did _he_ see?"

The memory was murky and far away. Like he'd shoved it in some part of his brain where it could be tucked away, out of sight. Trying too hard to look at it made the Other Guy stir. But there were ghosts of it. Neil crying. Ada screaming. Little voices calling for help.

Something must have shown in his face because Tony squeezed his shoulder. "Even he isn't going to make his worst fears come true." With that, he stood and headed back up to the cockpit.

They landed right by the door, it seemed, because when they opened the ramp it was right there. The women were standing there in a row, reminding him of the Wife Line at the tower. Pepper, Jane, Sharon, Violet. Sameen lurked off to the side with a massive gun.

The rest of them started to stir and stand, but Bruce really didn't feel like moving. He watched the rest of the team file out, meeting up with their loved ones.

Violet waited until they had cleared out before climbing up the ramp to the jet. Without a word she eased down next to him, sitting on the hard metal of the jet. There was a dog eared book in her hand, which she opened and started to read from. "'"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."'"

He closed his eyes and let the sound of her voice pour over him. Deep inside, the Other Guy settled. He had been feeling his presence clearly. The _threat_ of him pushing at his bonds. As if he'd stuffed him in an ill fitting suit in his attempts to calm him. It almost didn't matter what she said. Just the sound and scent of her calmed all his dark corners.

"'"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose. . ."'"

Eventually he reached out, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her practically into his lap. He pressed his face into the crook of her neck, and mumbled, "She got in my head."

She stopped reading and lifted a hand, stroking his hair. "I'm so sorry, Bruce."

"She had the Other Guy convinced Neil and Ada were in danger. Someone took them, someone was hurting them. And he was going to level that city until he found them."

Her hand kept stroking his hair and she pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Sounds like Other Guy would make a good mom."

"I don't know how many people died." It was painful just to actually say the words.

"Do you want to?" she asked him quietly.

"Barton says it doesn't make it better."

"It looked like Tony tried to get you away from the more populated areas," she offered. Because what, exactly, could she say to him? She kissed his cheek again. "Whatever happens we'll get through it." The way she said it made it sound like a vow.

Speaking of things it hurt to say. "If you want an out, Violet, nobody would blame you. Not even me."

She shifted and kissed his temple. "I don't want out. I love you. For better or worse." With a nudge, she made him tip his head up so he would look at her. "We are responsible, forever, for what we have tamed."

Something inside him unclenched. He'd known the answer, somewhere in there, but needed to hear it nonetheless. Maybe he shouldn't be around people. Maybe they'd need to go live somewhere with less of them. But they'd find a way to figure it out. "Well. Tony would have blamed you. Probably a lot."

She smiled and cupped his face in her hands. "See? That's an enemy I don't need." She kissed his forehead, then his mouth. He sank into her, wrapping her up in the shock blanket someone had draped over him.

When he lifted his head she said, "Come on. Let's get you a shower and some food."

He got up and they went down the ramp. Tony was loitering near the bunker doors, waiting to shut down the jet. He pulled it open as Bruce and Violet went by. They made eye contact briefly, and Tony smiled just a little before jogging towards the jet.

They went down in an elevator. "Are the kids asleep?"

"Yes. I promised you'd see them in the morning but that you'd be tired when you got home. Ada tried to wait up anyway but didn't make it much past eleven."

"I'll just stick my head in. I just. . . want to see them."

"Of course." The elevator doors opened and she guided him out into a little vestibule. There was only one door, which opened under her finger prints, spilling them into a cozy living room with a narrow galley kitchen at one end. She lead him through the living room and around the two over stuffed couches. One wall was lined with two doors and the entrance to a narrow hallway. "Ada's on the far left and Neil's down the hall on the left. Our room is at the end of the hall. There's an attached bath if you want to shower."

He opened Neil's first. There was a queen bed in there, and he was sprawled sideways on his stomach, somehow managing to take up 3/4 of the bed. Bruce had thought it felt awful back when he thought he'd never have any children. He'd had no idea, really, just how much worse having them and fearing losing them could be.

Neil could sleep through a marching band, so Bruce snuck in to stroke his hair and kiss the top of his head. Nothing in his life had been as reassuring as hearing him snore and feeling the warmth of his skin under his hand. The little boy slept through it all and Bruce snuck back out, closing the door behind him.

He could hear Violet puttering in the kitchen as he peeked into Ada's room. She was curled on her side, hands tucked under her cheek, a star projector as a nightlight. She stirred when he went in to check on her. "Dad?" she mumbled.

His chest tightened with emotion. Violet had warned him that was probably coming soon. Didn't mean he was ready for it. He crouched down. "I'm here. It's okay, go back to sleep."

"I wanted to wait," she told him, cracking one eye open. "Mom said you had a bad day at work and didn't feel good."

He made a mental note to compliment Violet on the best kid friendly description of the Hulk in history. "That's true. But I feel a lot better now that I'm back with you guys."

"Do you need a hug?" Because it was Ada, it sounded vaguely accusatory, as if she was annoyed at him for not asking on his own.

"A hug would help a lot." She sat up and slung an arm around his neck. Gathering her up, he kissed her hair and rocked her a moment. "Thanks, honey."

"You can't die," she told him matter-of-factly. "My teacher at school says that some people have two Daddies, but I don't think I can have three. So you can't die."

"That's not exactly -" He stopped himself and smiled. Not the time. He shifted her away so he could see her face. "I won't die," he told her. "I promise."

She nodded in acceptance, and hugged him again. "Okay. I'm tired. Will you make pancakes tomorrow?"

"I will try to make that happen." He got her resettled and tucked her in. "Goodnight, Ada." She mumbled a response and he let himself out of the room. He could hear water running; Violet must have put the shower on. Sure enough, she was folding a towel when he entered the room.

"It takes a while to heat up, but it should be good now," she told him.

"Ada called me Dad."

Violet's hands stopped on the towel and she looked at him. "Are you all right with that?"

"Are you?" he asked.

"Have I told you how much I hate the 'answer a question with another question because you're afraid yours is the wrong one' thing?" He smiled a little. "I'm very happy she loves you that much. But if it makes you uncomfortable I can talk to her about it."

He came over and took the towel. "They're my kids," he said. "The Other Guy would smash a city for them."

She smiled widely and he could tell how happy that made her. Well, maybe not the Other Guy part. "We'll see how long it takes Neil to stop calling you Boose."

"Neil can call me anything he wants." He reached over and tugged her arm a little, pulling her close so he could hug her. He bent his head and kissed her shoulder. "You are such a miracle."

"I'm not," she said softly. "I'm just me."

"That conversation we have one day about me dodging awkward questions is going to include a section on you and taking compliments."

He felt a little puff of her breath against his throat as she laughed. "Touché." She lifted her head and kissed his jaw. "Okay. I'm awesome and you're a good dad. Get in the shower before it uses all the hot water."

There was a part of him that though he should turn the hot water down, stand in the cold, and feel miserable. But he found himself suddenly not wanting to swim in guilt. Not wanting to be alone. Instead he wanted to hold on, to let her remind him he wasn't really a monster. "If you're really that interested in water conservation, maybe we should share." 

Her eyes widened in surprise. She had obviously not been expecting stress-sex tonight. Her lids lowered, guilt rushed up again and he prepared to apologize and take it back. Then she looked back at him and her eyes were dark, pupils widened. That had not been shyness lowing her lids, but perusal. "Sharing is good," she said, twisting to snag another towel off the pile of laundry sitting on the bed. "I say that all the time."

*

Bucky and Amanda walked silently from the jet to the bunker. They hadn't really talked much on the flight, despite its length. She'd been busy tending people, he'd been busy staring into space and contemplating his demons. He felt like he just woke up from cryo, and found the world in yet another decade, alien and disorienting.

Then they walked through the doors, and in the very long hallway between the doors and the elevator stood Darcy, holding their daughter.

Amanda made an indescribable noise and sprinted the last few feet to her, scooping Edie out of the other woman's arms. She bent her head and inhaled deeply, nose buried in the baby's dark hair. "Thank you," she said softly to Darcy before turning to Bucky, meeting him halfway.

He had a split second thought that he shouldn't touch them, shouldn't touch the baby. She was fragile and he was dangerous. But he shook it off, the bad hangover of an experience that was every bit as awful as Barton had once described it to him while very drunk. This was _his_ baby. So he wrapped both of them in his arms.

Amanda rested her forehead on his and for a few moments they stood in silence, breathing each other in.

Behind Amanda, Darcy cleared her throat. "You guys are on floor seven. Lefthand door. It'll open to your handprints. Well, not the metal one, but. . ."

"Thank you, Darcy," Amanda said, smiling for the first time since they'd landed in Johannesburg. It was thin and small, but it was a smile. 

There were others in the elevator, but no one spoke as they rode down. Sharon and Steve got out on the same floor as they did, going into the door on the right. Amanda was still cradling Edie, so Bucky used his hand to open theirs.

There was a small, oddly shaped kitchen, a living room, and small hallway that presumably lead to the bedrooms. Edie's pod was in the center of the living room. He stared at it, and found himself saying, "I hurt her."

Amanda didn't respond right away. When she did it was in a tone of complete understanding. "That's what she showed you. Your hallucination."

He nodded. "I was holding her, and then there was. . . a misjudgment, a malfunction, I don't know. And I. . ." He flexed his metal hand, having the sudden urge to take it off and destroy it. He'd been cradling her and just squeezed. "Actually you don't want me to describe it." Though he was probably going to see it in his nightmares for a long time.

"No," she said softly. "I can imagine." She looked down at the baby and he could see her reluctance to put her down. But Edie was blissfully asleep, oblivious to the pain her parents were in. Amanda was very good at triage. So she set Edie in her pod and turned back to him, sliding her arms around his waist. "Stark said she digs out your worst fear and makes it feel real."

He wrapped his arms around her, pressed his face into her hair and nodded. "What did you see?"

There was another stretch of silence before she answered. "Killing people."

"Specific people?"

"No. I didn't recognize any of them." She took a shuddery breath. "There was a lot of blood and I had a knife. I knew I had killed all these people. You and the others were there, telling me we were killers. That's what we were good for." He heard her swallow. "You were in your old uniform, the one you wore as the Soldier. You talked like him. His eyes."

His arms loosened. "And I was making you like me."

Her arms tightened in response. "I was killing people long before we were together."

"Self defense is not the same thing."

"It's not the intent that bothers me, it's the capability." She paused and he counted heartbeats until she clarified. "Barton once told me one of the reasons he called me an Avenger is that I was capable of killing people up close. In a way most people aren't. I think I saw the Soldier because he represents a particularly dark side of you. And I fear that particularly dark side of me. The part that uses my medical knowledge to hurt."

"Intent is all that matters," he replied. "It _has_ to be." He couldn't live with it otherwise. It had to matter he hadn't wanted to kill all those people from when Hydra was controlling him. It had to matter he hadn't wanted to hurt Edie.

She heard something in his voice that made her lean back to look at his face. She studied him a moment, then cupped his face in her hands. "You are not responsible for what was done to you," she told him firmly, sounding like her old prickly self for a moment.

"Maybe it doesn't matter. I did it anyway. It was an accident and she was still dead." He had enough hazy, dream-like memories that he knew to be actual fact. It only made it seem more real.

"You wouldn't hurt Edie. You hold her like she's made of spun sugar." She stroked a thumb along his cheek bone. "It wasn't real. Yours wasn't real and neither was mine." She took a deep breath and repeated, "It wasn't real."

"It wasn't real," he echoed. Maybe if he said it enough it would feel true.

"This is real." She took his hand and pressed it against her chest so he could feel her heartbeat, then drew it down to touch Edie's back. She was warm and breathing under his fingers. "This is real." She rested her forehead on his. "We start from that. And we figure the rest out."

Edie squawked, and he flinched. He wanted to pick her up, but fear choked him. She needed to be taken care of. They couldn't wallow in this because she needed them. "I can make her a bottle," he said.

Amanda nodded. "She probably needs to be changed." He nodded and she turned away, bending to scoop the baby out of the pod while he went to the kitchen to rummage for bottle components.

Five minutes later they were on the couch, Edie drinking happily from her bottle. Almost hesitantly, Amanda shifted to lean on him. She was on his left, and he didn't want to wrap his arm around her. It was a ridiculous feeling. _It wasn't real._ So he put his arm around her and pulled them both a little closer.

She sighed softly and he felt tension ease out of her. "I love you," she said quietly.

"I love you, too." He looked down at the baby for a moment. "Something else Barton said once: If somebody needs killing—if the _intent_ is not evil—then the most humane thing is to do it fast and clean. Bullet to the brainstem." Bucky paused. Barton did get kind of philosophical about his assassinations, didn't he? "He's not wrong. People think hesitation when inflicting unavoidable pain makes them kinder, but it's really just selfish and weak. When you set a bone, you yank fast." He stroked her arm. "You've only killed when you had to, and you have the capacity and the training to do it without causing unnecessary harm."

She seemed to process that for a little while, leaning on him and stroking Edie's soft skin. "If I wasn't capable of it, if I didn't have my own darkness and scars, then I might not have been able to help you deal with yours. I might not have fallen in love with you." She tilted her head back to look at him. "I wouldn't trade you for anything."

"Neither would I," he said. "Not even a normal arm." That made her smile and she closed the distance between them to kiss him. He lifted his other hand and cupped her cheek, kissing her back, drawing her closer with the metal arm. This felt normal. Safe. They were a family. A team. It would take more than some fucked up visions to tear that apart. Not after everything else they had been through.

*

Clint imagined everyone was having a bad night. 

They'd staggered off the jet, dispensed to loved ones like children being let out from school. Everyone probably had their own post-mission cool down routines, but this had been a much different experience. He and Nat's routine had been established for years, and yet New York had thrown it. They'd slept in separate beds that night, physically and emotionally exhausted. He'd been afraid to relax.

Nat was far more banged up than he this time, so he let her take the lead. He'd have been happy just to tuck her safe into bed. 

They barely got the door closed behind them before she reached for him, tugging his gear off and kissing him fiercely. It reminded him of the old days, staggering into a safe house and working to get as naked as quickly as possible. Conscience required him to make sure she was really certain about this. Her reassurances were firm and unequivocal.

They knocked a lamp off a table, shattering it, and broke two legs off the coffee table in their distraction. It was probably a feat they'd made it to the bedroom.

"There's probably a lot of broken furniture tonight," he said into the darkness afterward.

That actually produced a breathy little laugh. "I'm sure Stark has a good supplier."

He rolled onto his side. It reminded him of one of the first handful of nights together. They'd been in Bangkok and busted up a child sex trafficking ring. It had hit her hard, and despite their intent to stop, sex had seemed the only thing that would settle them. "How bad was it?"

Silence. He held his breath a little. This was the test. Back then she would have obfuscated, tried to dodge his question. Anything to avoid talking about it. They'd come a long way since then, but he knew first hand what trauma could do.

"Up there with you and Loki," she finally said softly.

He sighed. "I'm sorry." He wrapped a curl around his fingers. "You want to tell me about it?"

"A lot of it was real memories just. . . warped in strange ways. I was back in the Red Room with the others. Training. Dancing." He almost heard a smile at that word. She still liked ballet, even if she never did it herself.

She took a deep breath. "At the end of training, they put you in a room with a man with a bag over his head and a gun. You have to shoot him. No reason given. You are a weapon and your job is to kill him." She paused. "It wasn't the first person I killed but it was the first time I didn't see their face, didn't have some idea of why."

"Because you had to follow orders." The Red Room, as well as Hydra, preferred to handle their assassins via brainwashing and total control. SHIELD, for reasons of personality or culture differences or the way laws worked in western countries, hired its assassins and didn't fuck with their heads. You knew who and why. You could say no. Clint had never killed anyone he didn't think deserved killing. 

Fury griped sometimes that the Russian way was more expedient. Finding people like Clint— not bothered by killing but not motivated to do it recreationally, ideologically neutral, and mostly emotionally bulletproof—was exceedingly hard. Managing them was like owning a thoroughbred, or a bengal tiger. But the damage the other way left in its wake was inhumane.

"In real life I never knew who he was. I shot him three times in the chest. He died and that was it. I began solo missions a few days later. In the. . . dream, or whatever it was, my trainer pulled the bag off and it was you." Nat paused and took a shuddery breath. "She said love is for children. Or maybe I did. Then you snapped me out of it."

"Stark thinks she shows people their greatest fears. Perhaps mixed with bad memories. Jumbled up like dreams."

"That about sums it up." She sighed and found his hand, tangling their fingers. "It was awful."

"I'm glad I stopped her. Mine is probably about having my mind controlled. It might have created a paradox that destroyed the universe."

She laughed again, fingers tightening on his. "That would be very meta."

"Having it happen to you is a close second."

"Well," she said softly, after another minute of miserable silence. "At least I didn't hurt anyone while I was out of it." She squeezed his hand again. "You should try to talk to Bruce, if he's willing. I can't imagine what he'd feeling."

A lot of terrible things. God knows Clint would know. "I told him he didn't want to know the death toll."

"We should keep him away from all forms of media. I imagine they're having a field day with this."

"Oh, you were kind of asleep or zoned out when Stark talked to Hill. It's. . . bad. Part of why we came here instead of going back to New York since the mission isn't finished. There are some rumblings they might try to arrest him."

She sat up a little. "God. Poor Bruce." After a pause she added, "Poor Violet."

"Stark won't let them. They can't get in here, anyway. Assuming they could even find it."

"That's good for the short term, but she has kids. They can't just go live in Calcutta like he did last time." Nat sighed and resettled, this time on Clint's shoulder, an arm looped around his waist. "Hopefully Hill and Sharon can smooth it over."

"We find Ultron and publicly save the world, they'll probably forgive anything."

She nodded against his shoulder and settled closer. "This was a really shitty day."

"It was." He rubbed her back in slow, gentle circles. "I wish I knew what to say. You'd think I would."

"Probably a sign there's nothing to say." She pressed her face into him. "I'll be all right. It'll heal over. Like all my other scars."

"It gets easier. You stop doubting the reality of your thoughts. You stop being afraid to sleep."

"I am _terrified_ to sleep."

His arms tightened. "I know. I'm here. It helped when you were next to me. Maybe because I knew you were safe. Or that you would protect me."

One of her hands moved to flatted over his heartbeat. "I feel like you're the only real thing in the world right now. I know you used to say the same thing about me."

"So keep your eyes on me. I understand better than anyone."

She nodded. "I'll try."

He cupped her face in his hands. "They won't ever hurt you again."

For a few heartbeats she just studied his face, as if she was determining how sincere he was. Then she leaned forward and kissed him. "I trust you," she said softly.

He held her against his chest. "Good. I'll always have your back."

She sighed deeply and curled up close to him, relaxing noticeably in his arms. "I love you."

"I love you," he whispered. "I'll keep you safe."

He held her close as she slowly drifted off and closer still when the nightmares came.

*

Feeling oddly like an RA, Darcy waited until the last of the team had disappeared into their rooms before going back to hers. She took the stairs, walking slow in case someone started screaming or needed help. Everybody had looked like hell, even Barton and Stark, who as far as she could tell, hadn't gotten whammied by the enhanced girl.

Cal was stepping out of the elevator when she reached their floor. He had stayed in the control room, monitoring the feeds to make sure no one had followed the jet in. When she saw him, she wrapped her arms around him a moment, before turning to open their door.

"California's looking kind of good right now," he said.

She smiled, kicking her shoes off as she walked to the couch and flopped onto it. "I didn't want to be the one that said it."

He sat next to her. "It was very astute of you to offer to wait with the babies so Violet could go meet the plane."

"Figured they'd need a moment. Plus I got to hold a baby!" Darcy's clock was not ticking as loud as some of her Facebook friends' seemed to be. But she did concede babies smelled really good a lot of the time.

"Edie is particularly cute," he commented.

"I wasn't fishing," she assured him, tipping her head back onto the couch. "I get plenty of baby fixes to tide me over."

"You could fish," he said. "I wouldn't mind."

She cracked an eye open to look at him, then closed it again. "I don't think now is the best time to scratch my implant out of my arm and start procreating. Adorable as as our babies would be."

"It would suck to have morning sickness during the apocalypse, wouldn't it?"

"Where would I even find pickles and ice cream?"

"Better to see how it shakes out. If we survive, then we can help repopulate the planet."

"Yes, the post apocalyptic dystopia will need snarky admins and tech people." She sighed, exhausted and depressed. She held her arms out. "Hugs."

He reached for her, and pulled her all the way into his lap. "We'll need each other. That'll be enough."

"I definitely need you," she confirmed, settling her head on his chest so she could listen to his heat beat. "Everyone else seems to be going to hell."

"They definitely will need snarky admins and tech people in Hell."

She laughed and she loved him for making her laugh when she felt this miserable. "Give me a week, I'll take over."

"I know I should be more serious about this. I just. . . Steve made a comment once that he'd had Last Rights a bunch of times as a kid and was pretty much immune to his own mortality by adulthood. Which actually explains a lot about him. I feel a bit the same, I guess."

"You did your processing three years ago and now nothing can phase you?"

"I think so, yeah. So feel free to lean on me with your entire weight."

That was just an invitation to cuddle closer to him. "All of my near-death experiences have been pretty fast moving. I haven't really had to deal with the looming specter before."

Cal kissed her hair. "I have faith in them yet."

"They do have a habit of pulling it out on in the last minute."

"Whatever happens. . . we do it together."

She fumbled around and found his hand, weaving her fingers with his. "Promise."

*

The only sound in the room was the two of them trying to catch their breath.

"Steve?" Sharon asked quietly from an inch to the right of his ear. "Is it just me, or is this couch kind of. . .slanted?"

He didn't want to move a muscle, let alone lift his head. But they were at a bit of an odd angle. Very slowly he sat up, and they disentangled. He was still wearing about a third of his uniform. She was wearing only a t-shirt, though there were two halves of a ripped bra hanging from her elbows. The rest of their clothes were scattered on the floor in pieces. 

"The couch is likely broken," he conceded. "And may be about to collapse."

This news was enough to get Sharon to slide gingerly off said broken couch, onto a bare spot on the floor. With a dismayed look, she peeled the remnants of her bra off and looked up at him. "What happened?" she asked softly.

He scrubbed his face with his hands. "She got in everyone's head and made them hallucinate."

She curled her hand over his thigh. "What did you see?"

His life as a mobius strip. It was half a memory, or based on a memory. He'd still been young, Sharon had been old and dying. He'd bury her like Peggy. He'd bury everyone, over and over. "Immortality."

He loved her because she understood. He didn't have to say anything more and she knew. Probably down to her part in it. Her face softened and she shifted up onto her knees. "Baby." She drew his forehead down to hers. "That isn't going to happen. We're going to grow old and grey together. You're going to need to help me find my glasses and complain about your arthritis."

"It just. . . it felt very real. I believed it."

"I know," she said softly. "That's why it was scary."

He shook his head, like he could physically shake it off. He had a team to lead, dammit. "I need a shower."

"Do you want company?" He smiled a little and she added. "I'm not trying for another round. I just. . . you don't look like you want to be alone."

He _hated_ that his voice cracked a little when he said, "I don't."

"Okay," she said softly. She kissed his forehead and got to her feet. "Okay. Come on." She tugged him gently. "Come on. Let me be the strong one for a little while."

They went into the bedroom, and he let her help him take off the rest of his damaged uniform. He was going to have to fix it, but that was for tomorrow. The shower was pretty large, plenty of room for both of them without being completely pressed together. Not that that would have been a bad thing.

She peeled her shirt off, which he realized was so big it must be one of his, and stepped into the shower. He followed, closing the glass door behind him. The water was blissfully hot against his sore muscles and for a moment he just stood with his eyes closed and let it soothe him.

The fresh scent of his soap hit his nose and a second later he felt Sharon start to rub his back in big, slow circles. "Have I told you I adore you?"

"You've mentioned it," she said, fingers digging in at his shoulders to work loose some knots. "A girl never gets tired of being appreciated."

"I take care of the others, and you take care of me."

She pressed a kiss to the back of his shoulder and stepped around him to soap up his chest. "I try."

"It was such a mess, Sharon," he said. "She destroyed us."

"Not a lot of people in the world who can handle facing down their worst fears." She touched his jaw with her knuckles. "You guys have a lot bigger fears than most of us."

"We're going to have to fight them again, and I don't know how."

She stroked her hands down his arms, carefully cleaning off the scrapes and abrasions on his knuckles. "How did she take you out this time?"

He told her about the ship, confronting Ultron and then splitting up to handle the drones. The growing panic as people started dropping off the comm.

Sharon finished washing him, even making him stoop a little to wash and rinse his hair. By then the water was starting to cool and she turned it off, opening the door and nudging him out, wrapping them both in towels. "You do what you told Stark you would," she said when he was done. "You stick together. No one runs off alone again. You fight in pairs or threes and you watch each other's back. She's small and physically weak. It sounds like she can only take on one of you at a time. Don't give her the chance."

"Her brother moves faster than you can really see. Takes her from person to person. We need to get them apart."

"Start there. When you went in this time you thought they were pawns, that they could be swayed. Now you know: they're true believers. You can't treat them like civilians." She dried herself and tugged her t-shirt back on, before turning back to help him dry off.

"They're just kids." Not that that mattered. He and Bucky had been kids. He'd led a lot of kids and killed a lot of kids. Sometimes even back during the war, German soldiers would register as kids to him, despite him not exactly being old. 

"They managed to defeat the Avengers," Sharon said quietly. "They made Bruce do awful things that might get him arrested. They're enemy soldiers, Steve. You can't see them as anything else."

"I know," he said. "You know I know." He kissed the top of her head. "I can't afford to have doubt in front of anyone else, so I guess I'm having it now."

She touched his cheek. "I know. I say it so you can repeat it to yourself later, when I can't." Her thumb brushed along his lips. "We saw Bruce and Tony in Johannesburg on TV. Violet wanted to go topside to try to call Tony, to see if she could calm Bruce down. I had to stop her. And Pepper. I don't know if we're friends anymore." She smiled a little, sadly. "Darcy called me Cap 2.0." The smiled faded and she met his gaze. "I know how hard it is to be who you need to be for them. If there's anything I can do that I'm not doing. . ."

He pulled her closer, tucking her against his chest. "They'll forgive you. And you are being absolutely perfect. I knew I could trust you to look after everyone here."

She took a deep breath and nodded, wrapping her arms around him. For a few moments they just stood there, in the steamy bathroom, holding onto each other as tight as they could. Then Sharon lifted her head and rubbing his back briskly. "Come on. Let's get in bed. You're swaying on your feet."

"My uniform's a mess," he said, letting her lead him to the bed. "Do you know how to sew?"

"I do not," she said, pulling the sheets back and letting him climb in first. "But I'm willing to bet somewhere in the motley crew someone can."

Stark had great taste in beds. He let Sharon tuck him in like he was six years old. "Doc. She does other hand crafts. And stitches." He yawned. "I hear Thor really good at braiding hair. Maybe he can sew, too."

Sharon laughed softly and kissed his head, settling next to him and stroking his hair. "We'll figure it out."


	7. Chapter 7

The lights in the master bedroom slowly lightened with the dawn. Bruce was fairly oblivious to this, as once he was asleep he could sleep through a small war, but by seven am it woke Violet and there was no going back to sleep. She lay next to him for a while, listening to him breathe and thanking her stars that he was home with her. Eventually, she got up to pee and start the day. Ada had gone to bed late, but Neil would almost certainly be up and demanding attention soon.

Dressed, she went out to the living room and heard a persistent buzzing. Digging in the pile of gear Bruce had dropped near the door she found his cell phone and read the message from Maria Hill that had caused the buzzing.

_Touching down in ten minutes,_ read the mass text to Bruce and the rest of the team. _Be ready to meet in twenty._

She scowled at the words a minute. Brusqueness was Maria's style, so Violet didn't begrudge the wording of the order. She was annoyed that she'd barely gotten Bruce back and they were taking him away again.

Well. Fuck that.

_This is Violet,_ she typed, making sure it was set to Reply All. _Bruce promised to eat breakfast with the kids. You are all welcome to come down and have your meeting over pancakes, but we are having breakfast with our family._ She paused, picturing the row of tired, traumatized faces in the hanger the night before. Everyone could probably use a home cooked meal and a mom right about now. So she added, _There is also eggs, bacon, coffee, and juice. If you're good, I'll put chocolate chips in the pancakes._

If Hill was going to quibble with that, she didn't get the chance, because Steve replied not ten seconds later. _Sounds delicious. Twenty enough time? What floor?_

Steve, she was certain, knew the importance of normalcy and family. _Fifth floor. You may start arriving any time. Food will be ready in half an hour. I'll wake Bruce now._ When there was no immediate reply she went back to the bedroom and kissed Bruce. "Morning."

She got a grumbling noise, which was about par for the first attempt at waking. She turned to put some more lights on when he said, "I was kind of hoping to wake up at home."

"No such luck," she said, rubbing his back through the bed clothes. "We are having guests for breakfast."

"I promised Ada pancakes without checking if we could make them. You may want to check the cupboards, lest we have a meltdown in front of everyone." He paused. "I assume it's everyone." 

"And Maria Hill," she confirmed. "And don't worry about supplies. We're stocked for the apocalypse down here. I promised them eggs and bacon, too." He rolled over to look at her and she handed him the phone so he could read the conversation.

He chuckled a little. "I love you."

"You better. I put up with your weird friends." She kissed him again. "Get dressed. I'll get the griddle going."

He groaned and started to stand so she left the room again and went to the kitchen. There was an electric griddle in the cabinets that she dug out and plugged in before going to the fridge for eggs, milk and bacon.

Bruce came out ten minutes later with Neil slung over his shoulder. "Moving abruptly to an underground bunker is perhaps not the best thing to do during potty training."

"Oh dear." She kissed Neil's cheek on the way past. "Did he have an accident?

"He missed the bed." Bruce set Neil down in a chair at the table and started assessing their plate situation. "We know too many people."

Violet leaned over and looked, then pulled out his phone and sent another mass text. _Everybody bring a plate._ "Handled."

Smiling, he retreated to the table to give her space. "It was not a requisite of being with me that you adopt the rest of them."

"I know." They had two dozen eggs. She could use eight for the pancakes, stretch them with milk and maybe some melted butter, then the rest could be scrambled or fried. "I cannot build a metal suit. I'm afraid of guns. I could lose a fist fight to a kitten. I'm pretty sure Ada knows more about astrophysics and microbiology than I ever will. But I am a very good mom." She looked over at him. "I think right now that's exactly what this team needs."

Jane and Thor showed up first. "He ate all our eggs already," Jane told her when she came into the kitchen. The men were out in the living room moving furniture around.

"He's only been back eight hours," Violet said. And she'd thought Bruce ate a lot.

Jane shrugged and poured herself a cup of coffee, then shrugged again and started pouring more, emptying the pot and starting a new one. "He didn't sleep much. The. . . vision that the girl gave him? He thinks there was a message in it. Something he was taught as a child. He was trying to sort it out."

"Bruce said people were seeing their fears."

Jane took a swig of the coffee. "Maybe Thor's brain is wired differently."

"I suppose Asgardians would be. Weren't the twins altered by that staff his brother used?" She flipped her first batch of pancakes onto a plate, then started pouring the second. "Maybe it does speak to him on a different level."

She heard the doorbell, and then the door opening and Steve's voice. A few moments later Sharon came around the corner and set a carton of eggs on the island counter, but didn't come any closer. "Steve eats a lot, thought I'd bring extra."

Violet felt a sharp pang of guilt at how nervous the other woman looked. "Thank you. That will help." She glanced at her pancakes, then she went over and took Sharon's hands. "Bruce told me Steve promised them all that you would keep up safe down here. That the doors wouldn't open for any reason. He said it was the only reason they were able to focus, because they knew we were safe." She gave her hands a squeeze. "Thank you for having a level head when I couldn't."

Sharon looked a little bit like she might cry, so Violet pulled her close and hugged her. She didn't even mind when the taller woman rested her chin on top of her head.

"Oh, good, you're not mad either." Violet turned her head to see Pepper standing there. 

"No, we're good." She held her arm out. "Group hug?"

Pepper hugged the both of them. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. You were doing your job." 

"Thank you for understanding," Sharon said softly.

After a few more tight squeezes, Violet stepped back. "Would you like some coffee? Jane just started a new pot."

"I'd love some," Pepper said. "Tony's kind of an insomniac on a good day. Yesterday was not a good day."

Violet handed it over, and poured one for Sharon as well. The kitchen wasn't big enough for multiple cooks, so she sent them out with her first batch of pancakes and to get egg orders. The bell rang again and she heard Darcy's voice as well as the low rumble that sounded like Sergeant Barnes join the crowd in the living room.

When she heard an unfamiliar voice, and a general rise in the noise level in the living room, she came around the island to see what was going on.

Standing in the middle of her living room were Maria Hill and a tall, African American man with a black leather coat and an eye patch. A scan of the room showed a blend of surprise and dismay on the team member's faces. She cleared her throat politely and Maria met her gaze. "Hi. I invited a friend."

"Nick Fury," he said, nodding at her. "Former SHIELD director. You're Violet, I presume?"

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" She held up a hand. "No. Don't do the Mark Twain quote, I'm an English teacher, I won't be impressed. How do you like your coffee?"

"Cavity forming," he said. "And taupe."

"Really?" Tony said. "You can't say 'cream and sugar' like a normal person?"

"She's an English teacher. She would appreciate precision."

Violet left them bickering to get his coffee and the last of the pancakes and eggs. She handed Fury his mug, then stopped to cut up Neil's pancakes before sinking into a seat next to Bruce to join the meeting.

"My contacts all say he's building something," Fury said. "Amount of vibranium he took makes me think it's not just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

"Oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit."

Ada was sprawled out on the floor at Bruce's feet drawing with crayons, but that apparently caught her attention. "Mom, what does that mean?"

The rest of them turned to either glare at Fury or look at her in panic. Calmly, she replied, "Rabbits have lots of babies and Catholics traditionally don't believe in birth control. The bad robot is making lots of copies of himself very quickly."

"Oh." She promptly went back to her drawing.

"In any case, that doesn't give us any insight into his plans," Fury continued. 

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, while trying unsuccessfully to steal some of Pepper's bacon. She held the plate out of his reach.

"Yes, he is. Not making any headway, though."

That seemed interesting enough to make him forget about the bacon, and give Fury his full attention. "I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school. On a dare."

"I think they've upgraded since the 90's, honey," Pepper said.

"Somebody did something," Hill said. "Nobody's admitting it, but it's pretty obvious whomever managed to lock Ultron out wasn't from the government. They're as surprised as we are. Standing assumption among circles is it was you. Apparently not."

"Yeah, no, I was. . . busy. How many people even knew about him to act fast enough? We're all here, except for Rhodey and this isn't his wheelhouse." He made a vague gesture that could have been aimed at either Thor or Steve, or maybe both. "Half the rest struggle to operate cell phones."

His eyes fell on Cal, who laughed. "Yeah, no. If I had that kind of skill I'd make you at least give me an office with a window."

"I'm grasping at straws, man."

"So it's someone else, then," Nat said. "We've got an ally."

"Or Ultron has an enemy," Fury responded. "Not the same thing."

"Is it happening in real time?" Darcy asked. "Or is it like a wall or a lock?" Cal made a face at her. "Consider it a metaphor. If it's something like that then maybe JARVIS did it before he died. He would have known Ultron was dangerous and could have predicted where he'd go first."

Violet winced and closed her eyes just as Ada said, "JARVIS isn't dead!" in alarm.

Bruce looked at her and hissed, "You didn't tell her?"

"I've been busy. And I was hoping you'd be there to help explain it."

He sighed and looked down at Ada, who had sat up. "Honey. JARVIS tried to fight the bad robot and he got hurt very badly."

"He's not _dead_ ," she insisted and Violet noticed she sounded more impatient than sad.

"Ada," Bruce tried again. "I know it's hard-"

She jumped to her feet. "He's not dead. I'll prove it," she added before sprinting off to her room.

The table was silent a moment. Then Tony said, "Look, if we all survive this I'll make her a new JARVIS later."

Violet looked over at him. "He was her best friend. You cannot pull the replacement hamster trick and hope she won't notice."

She immediately regretted her tone when Tony looked down into his coffee and said quietly, “He was my friend, too.” Pepper reached over and rubbed his back.

Ada reappeared with her iPad. She stopped next to Bruce again and poked the home button, unlocked it and said, "See? He's fine," before turning to show him the screen. Instead of her collection of apps there was a swirl of yellow lines, woven together in an orb, turning slowly. It looks like some sort of fractal to Violet but from the reaction of Bruce, Tony, and Cal it must mean something more.

Apparently impatient, Ada tapped the screen and said, "Tell them you're not dead."

A very familiar voice came back, "I believe technically I would need to be alive to die."

"Holy shit," Tony said, sounding both stunned and overjoyed.

"Language," Steve said, and added, "Just paying it forward," when people turned to look at him.

"Oh, fuck off," Tony replied, jumping up and going to Ada to get the iPad.

"Fuck _it_ ," Neil corrected indignantly. 

Obviously overwhelmed by the sudden attention and wave of cursing, Ada ducked around Bruce to flee from Tony. Violet caught her as Bruce put an arm out to keep Tony at bay and give her a minute.

"Ada," she said softly. "You're not in trouble. Everyone is just really excited because we thought the bad robot had hurt JARVIS. Can you tell me how he got on your iPad?"

She glanced over at Tony warily. "I wanted to bring him to the first day of school to meet my friends. So he showed me how to wipe my iPad and plug it into the network. He put himself on it. Part of himself. He said it didn't have sufficient processing power for me to ask questions like I usually do, but that it was enough to hold his code. He said it was like his DNA." She paused. "Then he explained what DNA was."

"I don't understand," Cal said. "He was sending out SOS. Why didn't Ultron get the part of him that was on the iPad?

There was a moment of confused silence, then Ada said quietly, "I was grounded."

Violet rested her forehead on Ada's. "It wasn't connected to the wifi. A couple days before the party she didn't clean her room like I asked so I turned the wifi off on her iPad as punishment. I saw the yellow fractal but thought she was just using a new drawing program."

"Kid," Tony said, grinning wide. "I will give you anything your heart desires. I'll build you your own suit. Anything. Name it."

"Can I have a deep space telescope?"

Jane put her arms up in a victory vee. "That's my protege!"

"We will talk about your reward later," Violet said. "Right now, I think Uncle Tony needs your iPad so we can get JARVIS off of it and defeat the bad robot. Okay?"

Ada nodded and held the tablet out to him. He took it from her, and she went back to her crayons, coloring in a large purple butterfly.

"Okay," Steve said. "Happy as I am to have JARVIS back, I think we're a little beyond software wars."

"The question is," Fury said. "What does he want?"

"To become better," Steve said. "Better than us."

Amanda stood and reached for the jug of orange juice in the center of the table to pour herself another glass. "He keeps building bodies. Person shaped bodies. But the human body is extremely inefficient. Biologically speaking, we're flawed." She glanced at Tony. "Femoral arteries. If he wants to be better he should be improving on the form. But he's not."

"His purpose was to protect the human race. Maybe he's fond of us."

"By the way," Nat said. "As programming goals go, that one seems to have failed."

"He doesn't think we need protection," Bruce said suddenly. He was staring down at Ada. No, at her drawing. "We need to evolve." He looked up at the rest of them. "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Fury asked, coffee cup halfway to his mouth.

There was a clatter as the orange juice jug hit the table a little too hard. "I know," Amanda said, grimly. "We need to get to Korea."

*

Amanda wondered if she'd ever get used to leaving her baby and going off into battle. She'd wonder if it made her weak, except James seemed to be having just as much trouble as she.

People were moving around them, loading the two planes that sat outside the bunker. Fury and Hill were taking Stark, Banner, Cal, and Darcy to New York. They wanted to get JARVIS running on real servers again. His code was clearly smarter than Ultron's, given the thing with the nukes. And they needed all the help they could get. Clint was flying the rest of the Avengers to Seoul. 

Violet had finished saying her goodbyes to Bruce and was waiting patiently to take Edie from them. Amanda took one last deep breath of her scent and dropped kisses on her face before handing her over. James put his arm around her as they headed up the ramp into the jet. "We're doing it for her," he said softly. "So she has a world to grow up in."

She took a deep breath and nodded. "I know."

Steve looked over at her when she stopped beside him to check her gear. "You really think Ultron can build a body?"

"In theory, it's possible," she said. "It's not anything Helen was working towards. But with her technology, the vibranium, and the scepter. . ." She shrugged and shuddered a little at the possibilities. "We'd be looking at a true android. A blend of metal and man. And not in the sexy way, like James."

"Thank you, darlin'," he said, kissing her cheek as he went to find a seat.

"An android made by a robot," Steve said. "I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science had made was me."

"You were never the weirdest thing science made," Bucky said. "Unless you've been lying about not having a red skull."

"True."

"Ready to roll, Cap?" Clint called from up front. 

Before Steve could answer, Fury came up the ramp. "Hey, Rogers, can I borrow your girl?"

He turned and raised an eyebrow. "Only if you promise to film calling her that to her face. And, why?"

"I have my own projects going on, Rogers. It's not all about you people."

"Now is a remarkably poor time to be coy." He stood up and walked to the ramp. "She's managing security here, I'd need a pretty compelling reason to send her with you."

"Convincing some people not to out Dr. Banner and turn him and maybe all of you over to The Hague."

"Yeah, okay. That qualifies. Let me go talk to her and Sameen."

Fury nodded and stepped off the ramp so he could get down. Amanda joined Clint, Nat and James near the cockpit. "He's Capping for a minute, then I think we're good."

"I like that you've made verb about that," Nat commented.

"It needed to be done." James had slipped an arm around her waist and she leaned into him, grateful for contact. "How are you doing?" she asked Nat.

The other woman put a hand on Clint's shoulder where he was sitting in the cockpit. "I had nightmares," she said. "But we got through. What about you two? You didn't have anyone clearheaded."

"We had Edie," James said. "She needed us."

Steve came back up and gave the all-clear to take off. It was a long flight. Its highlight was Thor zoning out and becoming so unresponsive even Amanda couldn't shake him out of it.

They were in sight of land, only a few minutes out from Helen's labs. "What do we do?" Steve asked Amanda.

She waved a flashlight in his eyes one more time. "He's stable. Brain function is normal and he's breathing." She glanced towards the window, Seoul's skyline in the distance. "Buckle him in hope he wakes up before it's over?"

"We need him," Steve said with a sigh. "We're already down Stark, if this gets ugly. . ."

She glanced over at her suit. She was supposed to be medical backup. Help Helen undo anything Ultron had managed to put together. That was her function.

_There are only killers here._

Amanda took a deep breath and thought about Edie. How tiny she felt in her arms, her mop of dark hair and the little noises she made. Out the corner of her eye she saw James start towards them because apparently he had a sixth sense for when someone he loved was about to do something stupid.

"I can help," she said before he reached them.

Steve, of course, never saw a problem with rushing in headlong. "You bring the suit?"

"Always." She gestured to the black duffel stuffed under her chair. "It's more efficient than a med bag, most of the time."

"Amanda," James said. He really could cram an entire sentence into her name if he wanted to. That one said 'You are absolutely not fighting a bunch of evil robots twenty four hours after having a scary vision about being a killer.'

"Destroying robots is not killing people." It was a little bit rationalization, but it worked.

"It's still violent." Steve had backed away a couple of steps. Capping obviously didn't extend to marital discussions.

"The last time I didn't face my trauma head on I couldn't leave the Tower for two months," she said softly. "I need to do this. I need to be bigger than it."

James studied her face a moment, then rested his forehead on hers and took a deep breath. "Why do I keep finding people with big hearts and something to prove?"

She ruffled his hair and kissed him. "You have a very specific type, honey."

"Five minutes," Clint called from the front, and Nat came back to where they were standing to check her gear. They were dropping her to sneak into the lab and report status up to them, and then they'd take the fight from there.

Amanda started getting into her suit while they closed in on the drop-off site. One of the many differences between her suit and Tony's was that it didn't fly onto her from a distance. She'd watched him get smacked too many times to find that cool any more. She put hers on the old fashioned way, one piece at a time. Once lined up everything sealed together like his. James had to help her with the back piece that held an oxygen tank and a variety of IV fluids and meds. 

She clicked her second gauntlet on as the rear hatch opened and Nat dropped down onto the pavement and headed for the lab building.

Steve and James strapped Thor in, and then they just waited. "Movies always gloss over how much waiting around is involved in action movies."

"War movies, too," James said. "Hurry up and wait."

The comm popped on. "I'm in." Nat's voice was hushed but not urgent. "No sign of Ultron or his drones or the twins. The lab is trashed. Got some casualties."

"That's my cue," Amanda said and Clint swung the jet around to get closer.

"We'll come," Steve said. "Don't go far," he called up to Clint.

"All right but if I get a ticket for parallel parking you're paying it."

"We give those to Stark," he called over his shoulder as they filed out of the jet and down the ramp. 

The lab was, in fact, trashed, with techs in white coats slumped everywhere. For a second, she tasted blood in the back of her throat. She shook it off, flexed her hands in their gloves and crouched to start checking pulses.

"I called for EMTs," Nat said when she found them. "Dr. Cho's in bad shape."

At least two of the techs were beyond help. Amanda followed Nat to where Helen was and checked her out. She cut off her lab coat and sweater to check out the burn wound on her chest.

Helen jerked awake at the first touch of gauze. She caught at Amanda's hand. "He's uploading himself into the body."

Great. "Where is it?"

The other woman shook her head. "Gone." She hissed in a breath and Amanda popped open a compartment on her wrist to find a syringe of pain killer. Helen stopped her again. "The real power is in the stone. From the scepter. You can't just blow it up."

"Well what do we do with it?" James asked.

"Get it to Stark." With that, she let Amanda inject her with a sedative.

"How long ago did Ultron leave?" Steve asked, but she was already out. He made an annoyed noise that may have been directed at Amanda. But she was still a doctor first.

"Do you have any idea how fast shock kicks in?" she asked them without looking up from her work. Though that brought something to mind. "The fact that she's still alive tells me it hasn't been that long. He couldn't have gotten far."

"Barton," he said. "You see anything that looks like a homicidal robot escaping with an unconscious android?"

There was the sound of running feet in the hallway and all four of them tensed, ready for a fight. A crew of EMTs appeared at the doorway and Amanda stood to start updating them.

"I got a truck from the lab westbound the highway," Barton said suddenly. "And the news is reporting a attack on a commuter train."

"It's like he knows how we think," Steve said.

"He does," Nat replied. "Stark made him. Can you tell what's in the truck?" she asked of Barton.

"Cradle's in the back, driver up front. There were two others, but they just took off. Cap, Nat and I can get the truck if the rest of you want to deal with the train."

There was exchanged glances. The EMTs had the wounded well in hand, so Amanda stood up and nodded she was ready.

"Got it," Steve said.

"Clint, I'll meet you on the roof," Nat said and sprinted off.

Feeling a little like a girl who was finally getting to play with her big brother and his friends, Amanda followed the two super soldiers out of the building towards the train tracks.

She wasn’t yet comfortable enough in the suit to fly like Stark, but it let her keep up with the two of them at a full run, which was still oddly fun. She shouldn't be having fun at a time like this. But it was the first time she'd gotten to really stretch its legs. Or, well, repulsers.

The train under attack was obvious from a distance, heading towards them at an alarming speed. Steve, of course, picked up his pace and flung himself at it, kicking his way through a window. She exchanged an exasperated glance with James, then dodged the Ultron drone that was immediately flung through said kicked-in window. Its exit widened the space enough for James to give her a boost towards it and jump himself just before they ran out of ground and a stretch of elevated track started.

Ultron was waiting for them. "Aw, you're so predictable. Put enough civilians in danger and you'll walk right into a trap."

"Feel like explaining your plan now?" Steve asked.

The robot tilted his head. "Mmm. Nah." He lifted his hand and sent a blast towards Steve, who blocked it with his shield.

Drones swarmed them from behind and James, taking a page from Steve's book, jumped forward to meet them head on. She imagined that was an effort to protect her. They would discuss that later. She ducked an energy blast from one of the drones and lurched forward, putting a hand flat on the robot's chest and flicking two fingers to activate the defibrillator in the glove. 

The drone jerked and dropped, eye lights fading. "Okay. Stark was right, that is handy."

"You didn't say it," James complained, tossing a 'bot through the broken window in time for it to hit a light pole.

"I'm not saying it," she said, hopping over the one she'd downed to grab the arm of another and use it to shoot the one he was now grappling with.

"Please?"

"No."

"If you loved me, you'd say it."

She sighed, put her hand on this 'bot's head and repeated the defib trick and said, in the driest, most monotone voice she could manage, "Clear."

Steve's fight with Ultron himself was going on at the other end of the car, and getting increasingly messy. They could hear Nat and Barton talking on the comm, coordinating what sounded like dropping her on top of the truck.

"It'll be a really narrow window," Barton warned.

She scoffed. "I've done worse."

"I would just be sad, is all. If you went splat."

Beside her, Amanda heard James mutter, "Like bugs on a windshield," which inexplicably made Steve laugh.

Ultron took advantage of the moment of distraction and hit him hard in the abdomen. James dispatched the last drone with extreme prejudice and they both turned to help Steve with the main body. 

It turned to face them and Amanda had a vague sense of something passing her at rapid speed and then Ultron went toppling over. The enhanced boy - Pietro - appeared at the end of the train behind Ultron and Steve.

The robot stepped towards him and metal guard rails from the train's sides peeled off to block its way. They all looked back to see girl twin there. Amanda felt an immediate, instinctive thread of fear at the sight of her but forced herself not to flinch.

"Please," Ultron said, and he actually sounded sad. "Don't do this."

"What choice do we have?" the girl asked, staring him down.

Amanda exchanged a look with James. "Am I having another hallucination or did they switch sides?"

Ultron stared at them, then turned his head like he heard a sound. "Wait, you're messing with my. . ." He banged the side of his head. "Damn it." He sent an energy blast in the direction of the girl, blew out a hole in the side of the train and took off.

"Romanov, he's coming your way," Steve said.

"Two minutes!" she yelled back over serious wind noise.

"Ready when you are," Barton said, apparently to her. Then he added, "We got it covered, Cap, worry about the train."

"Get it to Stark as soon as it's in-hand." He turned then to look at the front of the train, and Amanda followed his gaze. The front had been blown out, and the train was careening out of control and about to go off the tracks.

She heard James make a noise of frustration as she sprinted to the front to check the driver's pulse. Nothing. She ducked as they hit the end of the line and she looked back at the group. "We've got civilians in our way!" she shouted.

Pietro darted out of the hole Ultron had left and Steve turned to the girl. "Can you stop this?"

She didn't really respond, but she stretched out her arms, and there were great shrieking and grinding noises, and the train began to slow. There was a few moments of chaos as Steve and James tried to protect the passengers from flying debris, or prevent them from falling out of one of the many holes in the train car.

They ground to a halt in the middle of the street and for an instant everyone seemed to hold their breath. When nothing exploded or fell or otherwise went wrong, they climbed off the train.  
 Amanda positioned herself near the front, keeping an eye out for injuries. There were sirens in the distance, which meant medical help was probably close.

Wanda walked past her to her brother, who was panting and all but falling over. He insisted he was okay when his sister started to fuss. His file had said increased metabolic process. He was probably starving, given the energy he'd just burned.

After a moment's hesitation, Amanda dug in her side pockets for the energy bars she kept there for Steve and James. She stepped over to the twins who glanced at her warily until she held out two of the bars to Pietro. He didn't even hesitate before taking them and ripping them open, devouring the first in one bite. Wanda gave her a little, hesitant smile and Amanda sighed and handed her another bar.

"You're such a mom," James said at her elbow.

"She looks hungry," she hissed back defensively.

"Thank you," Pietro said. "I need a minute."

"I'm very tempted not to give you one," Steve said, stalking over to them.

Wanda didn't seem intimidated, which Amanda had to give her credit for. "The cradle. Did you get it?"

"Barton?" Steve asked. 

"Loaded and locked. About to go dark so we're not tracked. Nat's on the bridge, she'll need a lift."

"Understood." He turned back to Wanda. "Stark will take care of it."

The girl looked horrified. "No, he won't." Her brother sighed and Amanda handed him another bar.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Steve said in his Cap voice. "Stark's not crazy."

"He will do anything to make things right," she protested. "Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that from?"

Amanda exchanged a look with James, who then looked at Steve. "She might have a point," he muttered under his breath.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone send good vibes to Olives, her family's had a rough couple days.

By the time Nat got to the roof of the lab Clint had brought the jet around. "Open the back," she told him.

"I could just land-"

"We're in a hurry."

She could almost see him shake his head at her as the back ramp opened and he backed the jet up to the edge of the roof. Backing up as far as she could, she took a running start and jumped in, rolling when she landed to dissipate her momentum. By the time she'd gotten her feet under her he had the ramp closing and was pulling away from the building.

"I hate it when you do stuff like that," Clint grumbled. 

"By hate it do you mean find it sexy?" She leaned on the back of his seat and kissed the top of his head.

"It's a really weird feeling to be worried and turned on at the same time." 

"I know exactly what you mean," she told him, watching out the window. "Too bad you had to watch the controls and not me."

"That, too. There's the truck. I'll follow it until I get a window."

She was probably going to have to do the same move in reverse to get out of the jet. Maybe he'd get to watch that one better. She fidgeted with her widow's bites to make sure they were charged up and leaned on his chair to stretch her hamstrings out a little.

The truck was winding its way through the complex tangle of highways that made up downtown Seoul. "If we can catch it on a high enough overpass maybe I can drop the cradle out the back."

"That one, up there, maybe." He pointed. "Though that was where I was thinking of dropping you off. May need to go sooner."

"I'm ready to go." She bent low and peered at the truck's path. "What about when it takes that turn there?"

"It'll be a really narrow window," he replied.

She blew a raspberry at him. "I've done worse."

He grinned widely. "I would just be sad, is all. If you went splat."

In her earpiece she heard Barnes mutter, "Like bugs on a windshield," followed by Steve laughing.

She grinned at Clint and bent to kiss him. "I'll get in position. I bet it'll be even sexier than the roof jump."

He muted the comm for a second. "Be safe. I love you."

"I love you back." She squeezed his shoulder. "I'll see you on the other side." He banked the jet and she headed for the back, opening the hatch to wait for her moment.

Clint never ceased to amaze her with his piloting skills. Her window to jump on the truck was a matter of seconds and he kept them rock solid and as close to the overpass as possible. As soon as it took the turn she ran two steps and leapt, landing squarely on the roof of the truck. For a half a heartbeat she scrabbled for purchase. Then she got her feet under her and scrambled towards the back to open the door.

"Yeah," Clint said. "That was."

The wind was too loud to respond, but she grinned a bit as she leaned down and unfastened the back doors. She was going to get rewarded for that the next time they had privacy, she just knew it.

"Romanov, he's coming your way," Steve said in her ear. No need to ask who 'he' was.

She got the door open and looked back to assess where she was in relation to the drop point. "Two minutes!" she yelled back before swinging herself into the back of the truck.

"Ready when you are," Clint said a moment later. He talked to Steve while she shoved the cradle to the back doors. In retrospect somebody with more upper body strength might have been a good idea.

She got it to the edge of the doors and waited, watching, before giving it that last push. The truck took the turn that got them to the top of the overpass. She saw the jet hovering right where it needed to be. It was a larger window than getting her on the truck had been, but not by much. She put her shoulder into it and sent the cradle flying out of the truck . . .

And right into the back of the jet. 

It was out of her line of sight in a blink, but Clint said, "Damn, we're good," on the comm, so it sounded like success.

The Ultron drone driving the truck hadn't seemed to notice her interference. Better to keep it that way. She stuck her head out the back of the truck and watched the traffic a minute before hopping off and landing on the side of the road. There wasn't much of a walkway on the side, but it was enough to keep her from getting squished.

She heard Clint tell Steve she was on the bridge and in need of a lift before he went dark and smiled to herself. Today, at least, was shaping up to be a better day than yesterday.

As if she'd summoned him with her hubris, Ultron plopped down on the road in front of her, casually causing a multi-car pileup as he did so. "You," he said. "You took something from me."

He'd certainly inherited Tony's need to talk all the damn time. "In my defense, you kind of stole the components to make it, so. . ."

"And you took the twins." He came towards her. "They were all I had. Like. . . like my family."

There was not a lot of room for her to back up into, but she did her best. "That I had nothing to do with."

"It's a very unpleasant feeling. It feels bad. You feel bad when someone takes your family." He sounded almost surprised by this. "Is it always like that?"

In a novel, this would probably be where they would bond about loss and pain and stuff. Nat glanced over her shoulder. The drop to the next stretch of road had to be almost twenty feet. Keep him talking, then. "Losing people usually hurts, yeah."

"Humans make such wasteful attachments. It's a weakness." He shifted, looking off to the left in a way that she really didn't want to remind her of Stark when he had a thought, but kind of did. "You all have them. All of the Avengers do."

Okay, she didn't really _want_ to have the bonding over pain and loss conversation with the evil robot with delusions of Stark-ness, but if it kept him from trying to kill her then what the hell? "Life is pretty lonely without them," she said and he looked back at her, still in that thoughtful pose. "I've tried it without attachments," she continued because, again, not killing her. "With is better."

"Does it help you win?"

Alarm bells went off in her head, but she still didn't have a plan B. "Having something to fight for helps."

"Maybe I should find them," he said thoughtfully. "Find them and take them away."

There was probably no right answer to that. "You'll never find them. But by all means, waste your time trying."

"You know where they are."

"Nope," she said, lying still coming as easy as breathing.

"I don't believe that for a second." He came closer. "You know, and you'll tell me."

Jumping was looking like a better option. She put a hand on the rail behind her. "Nope."

She heard a noise, and looked over her shoulder to see two drones floating behind her. Ultron moved as fast as lighting and caught her arm. "We'll see about that. I could use the company anyway."

She felt one of the drones grip her other arm as Ultron's thrusters fired up.

Well. Shit.

*

The science bros were arguing.

They were attempting to argue quietly, so that Darcy and Cal couldn't hear exactly what was going on. But it was still pretty obvious there was a fight going on. Body language indicated Tony was trying to convince Bruce to do something that Bruce thought was a) a bad idea and b) a _really_ bad idea. Tony kind of had a wild, mad scientist gleam in his eye.

"Do you ever think about how utterly screwed we'd be if Stark had decided to be a super villain?" she asked Cal as she watched the show. "Look how much damage he does when he's trying to be the good guy."

"Cap dropped a building on me," he replied. "They all do damage." He snapped the panel he was working behind back into place. He really, really hoped he wasn't going to electrocute them or fry the systems all over again. Especially if Icarus and Daedalus over there were about to do something stupid. Probably also awesome, but stupid. "Okay, try the screen again."

Darcy gave the terminal a skeptical look, but poked it obediently, then grinned when it lit up. "Hey! Progress!"

"I'm in a loop!" Bruce said behind them, louder than the heated whispers that had been going on since Barton had shown up with the android in a box. Tony shushed him immediately.

Barton appeared from. . . somewhere. He must have been hovering. At least he was invisible when he did so. He’d disappeared right after rolling the cradle into the lab. Thor - who had apparently zoned out into some sort of vision quest while on the way to Korea - came to just before landing and had taken off with his hammer to parts unknown. Darcy had shrugged and muttered something about unpredictable Asgardians.

"Comms finally fully up?" Barton asked.

"God willing," Cal replied.

The other man reached over and hit a button. "This is the Tower, anybody read?"

"Good, you made it back," came Barnes's voice. "We're quite a ways out. We had to steal a plane."

"Captain America Steals Jet will make a wonderful headline," he replied.

"Well, Bucky stole it," Steve said. "I can't fly."

"It's a wonder the Russians didn't win the cold war with that kind of training deficiency," Barnes replied.

"You both are hilarious," Barton replied. "Will you put Nat on for a second?"

The silence on the other end was deafening.

There was a shuffling noise and a woman's voice came on, but it was Amanda's, not Nat. "She wasn't at the rendezvous point and her comm isn't responding." Cal wondered if they had drawn straws or if Barnes and Steve had just kept pointing at each other until she stepped in.

"And you _left_?"

"The twins and I did a search while Steve and James got the plane." She paused. "Oh. The enhanced twins are on our side now. Long story. Anyway, witnesses said she had a confrontation with Ultron and he and two of his drones took her prisoner. We were hoping you had some sort of secret spy way of getting messages to each other or something. Some way she'd contact you." There was a murmur and she added, "James is keeping an ear on Russian channels but nothing has popped up."

"Jesus." He leaned on the counter and looked at the ceiling for a minute. Cal found somewhere else to look. "Yeah. I can cast some nets." He paused, glancing over at the two men now hunched over the cradle. "You may want to be careful bringing her up here."

Amanda sighed audibly over the mic. "Yeah, I know. That'll be interesting." More murmuring. "We're coming into some turbulence. We'll ping you when we're getting close."

"Okay." Barton said. "Thanks." He punched the button with enough force Cal was afraid he'd broken it, but sure as shit was not going to say anything. Then he turned and stalked off.

Darcy glanced at him. "We need to stand right here silently to make sure nothing else fucks up."

"That sounds like a plan."

Before Darcy could reply, Stark called out, "Hey, Bennett, come over here."

He sighed. "Or. . . not."

She sighed and kissed his cheek. "I'll be over here with my TASER. Signal if you need me."

"I love you more than life itself," he replied.

"Is that the signal?" she asked as he went to join the mad scientists. Who were apparently too good to do their own hardware reconfiguration.

"I need some help running lines, we're hooking this thing into the Tower systems," Stark said. 

"I thought we were destroying it," he ventured.

"Apparently not," Banner said. "Because I am completely insane."

Cal looked from one to the other. "So you're. . ."

"Putting me into it," JARVIS said cheerfully from his floating orb representation. 

"Ah," Cal said, not sure what else to say. It _did_ make a certain amount of lunatic sense. JARVIS had, it sounded like, been fighting off Ultron from a kid's iPad. Fight fire with fire, etc. Desperate times and global wars called for desperate measures and atom bombs. "Well. The 1.0 version of pretty much any piece of new technology is always flawed, awkward, and buggy as shit." He looked down at the cradle. "Guess this guy'll be the next rev. It's always better."

"See?" Stark said. "This one gets it. I'm building you a new chair after this."

Cal wasn't entirely sure compliments from a manic Stark were actually flattering. But no one was currently shooting at them, and if he helped there was less chance of it fucking up. So he grabbed the cable Banner was messing with and got to work.

Darcy had apparently heard enough to figure out what was going on because the next time he passed near her she muttered, "I can name a dozen sci fi plots explaining why this is a bad idea. Starting with Frankenstein."

"Frankenstein certainly covers the first one," he replied.

"There's also an assortment of Asimov. Battlestar Galactica. Lore, from Star Trek. The Borg. Isn't there a Bradbury story where a sentient play room eats some parents?"

"Ultron is very Borg, isn't he?" 

"Assimilation. Extinction. They sound awful similar."

"You know, Data outsmarted the Borg."

"And the creature outsmarted Frankenstein. Putting an _even smarter_ AI into a more powerful and indestructible body is not sound future planning. I'm just saying."

"They don't seem to have any better ideas."

She glanced over at Stark and Banner, darting around the cradle and spouting what sounded like word salad to him. "Well, I suppose someone will get to say a really big I told you so at the end of this."

"Or we'll all be dead."

"Depending on which religion is correct, I might still get a chance."

It took hours. Cal's part was over with after the first one and he sat back to monitor power fluctuations, a still skeptical Darcy beside him. Banner and Stark were in the zone, working on equations way outside of Cal's wheelhouse. Clint hadn't reappeared, presumably still trying to get in contact with Nat.

Darcy was dozing on Cal's shoulder when Banner said, urgently and loud enough to startle her, "You have _got_ to upload that schematic in the next three minutes."

That was when the lab doors slammed open and Captain Rogers, Barnes, Amanda, and two unknowns that looked younger than Cal stepped inside.

Rogers took in the scene before him, obviously figured out what was going on and started, in the most Captainy of Cap voices Cal had ever heard, "I'm only going to say this once-"

Stark looked over and muttered, "Nuts," in a tone usually reserved for much stronger curses.

"You don't know what you're doing," Rogers protested.

"And you do?" Banner looked as angry as Cal had ever seen him and still be human-skin-colored. "She's not in your head?" He gestured at the girl they'd brought with them.

She stepped forward. "I know you're angry."

"Oh, we're past that."

Darcy sat up a little more and pulled her TASER out of wherever it was hiding. The rest of them descended into loud bickering for a moment and Cal was seriously considering a hasty retreat for the two non-superheroes in the room when the new guy rolled his eyes and turned into a vaguely blue blur. In half a second all of Cal's wiring was unplugged. "There now," he said in a strongly accented voice. "Go on. You were saying?"

There was the sound of shattering glass and the floor dropped out from under the runner. Then everything descended into chaos. Barnes and Rogers went for Stark, Banner wrapped an arm around the girl's neck and Amanda leapt at the cradle controls.

"Wait!" Stark tried to shake Barnes's grip off. "Doc- Amanda, wait. Please. You're a doctor. You want to save the world just as much as I do."

Her hand hovered over the control panel and she looked at him. "Yes. I do. And I started with eight people after _three years_ of trials and testing. Because that's how science is supposed to work. You don't get to skip to the last page. And you sure as hell don't do that same damn thing over and over until it miraculously works. I believed you that Ultron was about protecting us, protecting what you love. But this?" She gestured at the monitors and the cradle. "This is ego, Tony. _Your_ ego. You're not a god. And you sure as hell don't get to make one."

"Ultron was an accident," he said. "This. . . this is desperation. I want my daughter to grow up, and this is all I've got left." He paused. "Also, doing the same thing slightly different until it works is how engineering works."

"This stopped being engineering when Helen Cho created something organic. Whatever is in this box is an entirely new life form." 

Cal glanced at the energy monitors. This was all probably going to be a moot point if the cradle's life support system failed.

In the distance, thunder rumbled. Darcy frowned at the windows, then grabbed his arm and dragged him a few steps away from the machines. Glass exploded from who knows where, and suddenly Thor was there, standing on top of the cradle summoning enough lighting to fry the building.

Barnes released Stark to grab Amanda and yank her away from the box. Thor finished charging and brought the hammer down on top of the cradle. Lightning arced from Mjolnr to the box, sending the monitors going crazy. Someone - maybe Dr. Banner - cried out. Most of them had to look away from the blinding light.

When it faded, there was a moment of utter silence while everyone stared in shock, trying to figure out what had happened. Then the top of the cradle blew off, sending Thor flying and a. . . person leapt out.

His skin was purple, and he had a glowing gem in the middle of his forehead. There was a moment of stunned silence, and then he leapt at Thor. The Asgardian knocked him away, sending him flying through the lab windows and out into the penthouse. Just before the purple guy went through the exterior window he stopped, hovering in mid air in front of the floor to ceiling windows.

Steve leapt after him, shield at the ready, but Thor waved him away. The rest of them had to make their way down in more mundane ways. He still hadn't moved, hovering there in front of the window.

"Is he looking at the city?" Darcy asked softly, holding Cal's hand.

The purple had begun to turn grey, as if the new guy was wearing a jumpsuit. "I think he's looking at himself."

"I guess JARVIS has never seen himself. That must be weird."

Finally he turned and floated back to Thor. "I'm sorry, that was. . .odd." He looked at Thor. "Thank you."

That was all he got out before accusations started back up. Thor explained about the vision that had so distracted him and the yellow stone hanging out on JARVIS's head and a bunch of alien doomsday stuff that was probably bad but not an immediately threat. He did say Stark was right about needing bigger guns to defeat Ultron, which Cal had to agree with but hearing Thor say Stark was right did send a general chill down one's spine.

"Why does alien vision guy sound like JARVIS?" Darcy asked. "Are you JARVIS?"

He tilted his head. "I am not JARVIS. I am not Ultron. I'm . . ." He looked thoughtful a moment. "I am."

Amanda rubbed her forehead. "That's really reassuring."

"I like your cape," Darcy said, as he had somehow grown himself a cape that looked just like Thor's. Cal and Thor both turned to look at her, and she shrugged. She really could be counted on to break the tension in any room.

Then the arguing resumed, about whether Purple Man was or was not on their side, and how dangerous the stone in his head was. Trying to find out if he was on their side lead to more existential pondering that seemed to boil down to him being on team "destroying Ultron before he can destroy us," which seemed like a good start.

Tension reached its peak again when Banner got in Purple Man's face. "If we're wrong about you. If you're the monster that Ultron made you to be-"

"What will you do?" he asked quietly. He studied Banner thoughtfully. "Ada would not want me to fight you."

Banner looked about an inch from going green, just on principle. "How do you know about Ada?"

Stark took a half step forward. "Must be something residual from the iPad."

"Maybe I am a monster," he said. "I don't think if I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way for me to make you trust me. But we need to go." He reached down and picked up Mjolnr, and handed it to Thor.

Cal had always assumed the phrase "hear a pin drop" was just an expression. But in that moment, he was pretty sure he could have picked up the clatter of sewing equipment from across the room.

Thor awkwardly took the hammer and looked down at it with a blend of betrayal and confusion. Everyone else exchanged glances but no one knew what to say. Finally Thor cleared his throat. "Right then." He patted Stark on the shoulder, before walking off. "Well done."

"I'm sorry," Barnes said. "Where are we going?"

"Sokovia," Barton replied. "Nat sent me a message, it's where Ultron is holding her."

"Thirty minutes," Rogers ordered, sounding back on solid footing. "Get what you need."

As they filed out to go save the world, Cal looked over at Darcy. "So I guess we. . . go to bed and hope we're still alive when we wake up?" That sounded pretty terrible to him.

Stark was passing them and stopped and backed up. "You're pretty useful," he said, mostly to Cal. "You could come. Run ops from the jet."

"If I do, I'll end up dying to show the situation is serious. I'm totally the red shirt."

The older man looked at him a moment and Cal was wondering if he was about to get a lecture on superstition and life not being a TV show. Then Stark nodded. "No, that's valid, yeah. Stay here, we'll be in touch."

"Yes, sir," he said with a grin. 

Stark walked off and Darcy threaded her arm through his. "What do you think their odds are?"

"I have no idea," he said with a sigh. "But I think they've beaten worse before." He looked down at her. "I didn't want to go without you."

She smiled and leaned into him. "From here on out, whatever we do, we do together."

He held her, and something that had once seemed very complicated was suddenly very simple. "Hey, Darce? If the world doesn't end tomorrow. . ."

"Sweetie, I still think anal is more trouble than it's worth."

He tipped his head back and laughed. "God, you and your broken filter. I adore you, even if you are world class at derailing moments."

She giggled, leaning her forehead on his shoulder. "Were you having a moment? I'm sorry." Leaning back to look at him, she said, "I love you. Pretend I didn't say the other thing. Go ahead."

"If the world doesn't end tomorrow, will you marry me?"

Her mouth opened and closed a few times. So that's what it took to make Darcy Lewis speechless.

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him fiercely. "I would love to marry you."

"I don't have a ring yet. I was still shopping. And getting what was probably way too much advice. Then this happened and I didn't want to wait any longer. But hey, there aren't any trashcans."

"There certainly aren't," she agreed, sounding utterly delighted. She touched his face and kissed him. "This was good. This will be a good story for the hypothetical kids when the world continues to not end."

"What do you say we go downstairs and celebrate just in case it does?"

Sniffling a little, she nodded. "That sounds like a good plan." Below them, he could hear the sound of the quinjet taking off. 

He leaned down to kiss her, just as his phone started ringing. With a sigh, he lifted his head and pulled it out to answer. Hill's voice came through immediately. " _There_ you are. I need you to come hot-wire a helicarrier."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be my favorite chapter. In the top three, definitely.

"So when you told Steve I was going to be convincing people not to arrest Bruce you neglected to mention I would also be helping you steal an aircraft the size of a city block."

Fury looked over to glare at her. "Are you sassing me, Agent?"

Sharon grinned. "I'm not your agent anymore." She stepped around the corner and decked the guard that was standing between them and the below ground storage facility that held a bunch of SHIELD's old toys. He hit the ground and she relieved him of his gun and keycard as Fury came around the corner to join her.

"I forgot how much fun field work is," he said.

"It is nice to stretch the legs," she agreed, swiping them into the service elevator. It took them down to the catacombs. Fury wouldn't even let her look at the rooms of confiscated weapons, hustling her to the end of the hall and the drop off that revealed the pit the helicarrier was in.

"Are we sure it still runs?" Sharon asked.

"She runs fine," Fury told her, sounding a bit like she'd offended his Mama. "She was retired in anticipation of Project Insight. She saw us through the Battle of New York, she'll see us through this."

"Wait," she said as he walked away to call Hill and the others to give them the all clear. "It's _that_ carrier?"

"Never throw anything away, Agent," he called back, heading down the long flight of stairs.

"I'm not an agent," she grumbled, trailing behind him.

"Hill's bringing the techs in," he said when she got down there. "I think we've got half an hour or so."

"You want me to start dusting?"

"Whatever floats your boat, Carter. First we have to get this damn door open."

Sharon joined him in studying the carrier doors. This was the downside of everything being automated. There was a small access panel on the left of the door. She used her pocket knife to peel the panel off and crouched to study the tangle of wires.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She ignored him for the moment, picking through the wires and following them to various sources. Choosing two, she scraped insulation off of them and tapped them together, causing a spark.

The door slid open.

Fury stared at her as she got to her feet. "Steve taught me how to hot-wire a car."

"Why?" He shook his head. "No. Don't tell me. I don't think I want to know." They flicked on flashlights and went down the corridor.

There wasn't much they could do until the techs showed up, short of making sure there weren't any surprise rat’s nests or anything.

When the techs _did_ show up, then things got interesting. Darcy and Cal had come. He immediately got to work crawling under work stations and booting them up. She recognized the guy from the Trisk who had refused to launch the Insight carriers. He seemed kind of embarrassed and flummoxed that she remembered him.

She then had the singular joy of introducing him and Cal to each other, as Button Bob and The Rubble Guy. Darcy shared her glee.

They got back to their hot-wiring, or whatever it was they were doing, and Darcy looked over at her. "What can I do?"

Sharon opened her mouth to say they had it covered, but that wasn't even remotely true. Launching a boat this big took a lot of people. They were going to need every hand they could. "As soon as someone's got an interface working, pull up the schematics and give me an idea of realistic carrying capacity. Weight limits aren't a concern and we know how many people the lifeboats can ferry at a time. . . but we might have to evacuate a city. We'll need somewhere to put a whole lot of people for significant flight."

"Logistics I can handle," Darcy said. Sharon got her a portable tablet to let her hook in with the rest of them and she ran off to start her coordination.

Sharon became point person for all the different departments, juggling reports from engineering, logistics, tech and defense. It required a lot of running around as communications slowly came on line. She pitched in where she could, at one point getting down in the guts of the engines, dumping grease between cogs.

Finally, she trudged back up to the control room and informed Fury that they were ready to launch.

"Waiting on some firepower," he replied. "S'pose we can take a crack at getting in the air."

Hill came through one of the doorways. "Wilson's here. Rhodes says he'll meet us in the air." She stopped beside Fury. "Something else I was thinking of. . ." She looked at Sharon. "Maybe we should get Violet."

Her brows went up. "Makes sense. After Johannesburg I think we'd all feel better if we have the big guns where Hulk was concerned."

"You think she'll be okay leaving the kids behind?"

"She damn near decked me when I wouldn't let her go topside to call him. I think she'll trust the people left in the bunker to watch them."

"Guess we'll pick her up on the way," Fury said.

"I'll have someone call the bunker staff to warn her," Sharon said. "I'll also ask her to pack clothes for the team."

Hill and Fury nodded and she went to Cal to pass on the message. "We're launching imminently. Any emergencies you want to warn me about?"

"The electrical system on Engine Three is kind of janky," he replied. "Working at the moment, though."

"Is this an ‘oh God, oh God we're all gonna die’ type thing or more of a ‘don't do anything fancy and we'll be fine’ kind of thing?"

"Well, I wouldn't try a barrel roll."

"I will pass that on to the helm. First stop is gonna be the bunker. Can you call ahead and let Violet know she's being recruited as official Hulk handler and purveyor of clean clothes?"

"They'll need to send a jet that can take off and land from here at very high altitude," he replied. "Retroreflection system is completely busted. We gotta stay above the clouds." He looked up at her. "Do we, uh, _have_ any jets? Or pilot?"

"We have the quinjets and Hill. We also have Sam Wilson and his wings, as a last resort."

He nodded. "I'll let her know."

She turned to go, then stopped and looked back. "Oh, is Darcy good with self care or is she going to get too distracted to remember to eat? Because I can assign someone to hand her sandwiches."

He grinned. "I see why you two are friends. There's already someone handing out sandwiches, actually. If that didn't originate from you, it almost certainly came from her. Jane and I both have the Nerd Who Forgets to Eat problem. She's a pro at this by now."

Sharon nodded. God bless competent people. "Jane better watch her back or Hill and Fury will poach Darcy when this is over." She lifted a hand in a wave and headed back to the control room.

They were counting down for launch when she got there. She took a spot at Fury's left and braced herself as the flying fortress slowly started to rise.

*

Bruce looked up at the stone fortress in dismay. The flight from New York had mostly consisted of awkward silences and Steve strategizing. First priority was evacuating the city. They needed to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. The Hulk wasn't particularly useful in such an endeavor, and someone needed to go help Nat out of whatever cell Ultron had stuck her in. Despite Clint's obvious desire to be the one doing the rescuing, if only to see her that much sooner, Steve had sent Bruce. The Hulk would be useful in the event of having to tear through an army of drones to get to her. And he liked her well enough not to hurt her in the process.

Somewhere in the city church bells were ringing. He counted them as he hiked through the last of the trees towards the fortress. _One. . . Two. . . Three_

"Who is ringing church bells right now? That's really fucking loud." Well, Tony being Tony on the comm was at least entertaining.

There was a rumble, and suddenly something near the top of the fortress exploded. A stream of robots poured out like a swarm of locusts, heading towards the city. "Uh. Guys. Incoming."

He ducked back into the tree line. Too early to get involved in the fighting. The sounds of battle came on the comm a few seconds later.

When the swarm had thinned out, he headed for the fortress again. Hopefully Nat would only be guarded by a couple of robots and he wouldn't end up tearing the whole building apart.

The place was now eerily quiet. He located a wooden door along the back that seemed the best place to go in. Just as he reached for it, it swung in, and Natasha was on the other side. She blinked at him. "Hello."

"Hi," he said hesitantly. Then added, "I'm here to rescue you."

She grinned. "Aww. You guys were worried." She leaned up and pecked his cheek. "Thanks."

"Thank you for simplifying my job." He handed her an ear piece.

Popping it in her ear, she said, "Hi boys, did you miss me?"

" _Tasha_." Barton put a hundred words and half-a-dozen emotions into those two syllables.

Nat turned away from Bruce so he couldn't see her face. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I'm fine."

"Wouldn't even let me hold the door for her," Bruce said, hoping there wasn't about to be a very personal conversation on the comm.

"Have a moment later," Tony said. "Shit is going down."

"Sorry." She looked in the direction of the city. "I held him off as long as I could."

"You held him off." That was Steve. "With _what_?"

She rolled her eyes. "With words. Getting in people's heads is what I do. Just 'cause his brain is artificial doesn't mean I can't mess with it. Especially considering how well I know the people who made him."

"’Manda, I love you," said Barnes, "But emotionally manipulating a robot is as awesome as killing one with a kitchen knife."

"I have to agree," she replied, grunting with exertion. "You have my permission to find that kinda hot."

There was silence, then Barnes said, "Do _you_ find it hot?"

"James." The exasperation was palpable.

"Stop it, right now," Steve said. "We do not need someone dying because they're distracted thinking inappropriate thoughts."

That Barnes and Barton said, "Too late," in virtual unison made Bruce laugh.

Nat shook her head, smiling indulgently. "Shall we?"

"Yeah. Maybe we can find me a nice empty part of the city and let the Big Guy work out his aggressions on robots."

"It's surprisingly cathartic," Barnes offered.

"We'll be there as soon as we can," Nat said. They did have a bit of a hike. She reached up and pressed her ear twice, to turn off incoming sound on the comm, and he did the same. "You know that was why the Other Guy freaked me out so much."

He glanced down at her. "Because you can't get in his head?"

She nodded slowly. "I can reason with a robot - apparently. It's my first and best weapon. And it's useless when if comes to him."

Bruce laughed a little humorlessly. "How do you think I feel?"

"Violet seems to be able to. I watched her do it, actually."

"I think that's more about her than him." He held up a branch for Nat to duck under. "He's not mindless, he even made a joke about Loki. But he is. . . impulsive and pure id. She told me it was like dealing with Neil, before he had his diagnosis."

"Children have never really been my thing," Nat commented. "They are often impossible to reason with. Though I suppose not hard to manipulate, if you know how."

"I feel like you may need to give us some pointers as Ada gets older. I can't get anything past that one."

There was a great rumble, and the ground shook like an earthquake, knocking both of them off their feet. In unison they both tapped their ears to get the comms back on. "Clint?" Nat said, concern threading her tone. 

"The fuck if I know," he came back. "Somebody up high? Stark? Thor?"

"FRIDAY?" Tony asked of the back-up AI he'd loaded into his suit.

"Sokovia's going for a ride," came the reply, in an Irish accent, of all things. Tony liked his accents.

"The city is. . . lifting up," said Thor. 

Ultron's voice came over the comm. "Do you see? The beauty of it? The inevitability? You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword, and the Earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal." 

"I really hate that guy," Bruce muttered.

"Which one of you programmed him to be such a fucking drama queen?" Barnes asked.

Nat was glaring at the slowly rising city. "We need to get up there."

Bruce sighed, eyeing the rubble falling off the chunk of city. It would be out of range pretty soon. "Natasha?" he asked, poking the presence in the back of his head. She glanced at him and he started to peel off his shirt. "Do you get motion sick?"

*

Bucky was paying attention to his fight, then suddenly Nat started screaming, so loud he had to take his earpiece out. It was more "I'm on roller coaster" than "I'm being murdered," but it was still loud as hell. He shot his gun with one hand and held comm a couple inches from his ear with the other, until it stopped. He put the earpiece back in just in time to hear Stark say, "The audience is now deaf."

He had no idea what that meant, but Amanda laughed hard enough it had to be some sort of pop culture thing he'd missed.

"Nat?" Clint asked cautiously. "Are you dead?"

She groaned. "I took the green express elevator onto the floating island." In the background, the Hulk roared. "Oh, go eat some robots."

FRIDAY was talking again, something about vibranium and magnetic fields making this happen. The endgame was understandable enough. Hoist the rock high enough, drop it back down like the meteor strike that killed the dinosaurs.

Steve appeared to be having trouble with some cars on the bridge. Bucky went sprinting just as the bumper of the red coupe Steve had been trying to haul up snapped off the rest of the car. Thor went zooming past Bucky and he reached the edge of the bridge just as Steve jumped off it to catch the driver Thor tossed up to him. 

Bucky flattened on the ground and reached down to wrap his metal hand around Steve's wrist. "Gotcha."

"Look at me," Steve told the woman. Bucky grit his teeth and slowly bent his elbow, hauling both of them up.

When the three of them were safe on the bridge, catching their breath, Steve said, "You know what that reminded me of?"

Bucky grinned, since this wasn't the first time he'd hauled Steve over a precipice. "Greece?"

Just then Thor flew up, dropping an entire car on the bridge. As the passengers staggered out and puked on the pavement, Steve muttered. "Or not."

Thor looked over at the two of them. "You two taking a nap?"

"We're suntanning," Steve replied as he hauled himself up and peered over the edge. "Stark?"

"Yeah?"

"Figure out how to get this thing down safely. The rest of us have one job: Tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed—" he looked over at Bucky—"Walk it off."

"Hey, that ended better than the last couple times we were on a bridge," he offered.

Steve laughed, and decapitated a robot with his shield. They fought three more back across the bridge, before Steve crouched to check a woman on the ground with a badly injured leg. "Doc? Green Mercedes, just past the bridge."

"Got it," Amanda replied. Her primary purpose, at the moment—despite Steve's instructions about tearing—was finding the wounded too bad off to move on their own, and triaging them. Some she would, and must, leave to die. It occurred to Bucky that that choice, and her comfort with its necessity, was what made her capable of killing when she had to. She made a lot of decisions about people's lives, even with no weapon in her hand.

He heard the hum of her repulsers - at a slightly different frequency than Stark's - as he and Steve plowed through a throng of drones pinning some civilians in a building. Thor had been sticking with them, but had been dragged off by Ultron.

"All clear here," Barton said.

"We are not clear!" Steve replied ducking two drones and sending his shield flying. "We are very not clear!"

Barton sounded completely unconcerned. "Right. Coming to you then."

"I'm evacing injured to the restaurant," Amanda announced. Bucky ripped the head off the robot he was dealing with and craned his neck to see her carrying the injured woman to a building away from the fighting.

"There you guys are," he heard from behind them, and glanced over his shoulder to see Nat. She was blooming an impressive shiner.

"Hey," Steve called. "Nice bruise."

"You okay?" Barton asked immediately.

Nat short circuited a robot with her baton and muttered, "Tattle tale."

"Have you been fighting again, young lady?" Amanda asked. "Clint's going to ground you."

"Are you people always like this when you're fighting for your lives?" That was Pietro. Bucky hadn't seen him or his sister since they'd landed. She had headed into the more populous areas to use he powers to influence people to leave. He had been making the rounds rousting police and emergency crews. 

"Yeah, pretty much," Bucky said. 

"It's annoying as shit, but you get used to it," Clint muttered. "It's even worse when Stark's got his mic on."

"Yeah, speaking of, you got anything?" Steve asked. He flung his shield through a row of robots. Bucky caught it and threw it back through another group. It reminded him of tossing a baseball around when they were kids.

"Nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. Keep it from impacting the earth. If you guys can get clear."

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan," Steve replied.

"Impact area's getting bigger every minute," he replied.

Nat kicked away the husk of the last drone and took a breath. "These people are going nowhere. If Stark's going to blow the city. . ."

"Not until everyone gets clear." Crap. That was Steve's honor before reason voice.

"The people up here versus everyone one Earth?" Amanda asked. "I'm sorry, but that's pretty simple math."

"I am not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." Yep. There it was. The kid who’d picked a fight with someone twice his size knowing damn well how it would go, because he'd said something disrespectful or God knows what. Digging in his heels like he could change reality with sheer force of will. 

"But you are," Steve continued. "Your repulsers will break your fall if you jump off now."

There was silence, then Amanda said, "Why?" in a tone of voice Bucky _also_ knew quite well. It was the tone she used when someone was being utterly illogical and annoying her in the process. Honor and reason were about to have an argument. He wished he had popcorn.

"Because I am not going to be responsible for Edith growing up without parents."

"I am not questioning why _I_ should get off the rock." Her voice was now coming from his left instead of his ear. They glanced over to find her clambering over a toppled car. Her hair was a mess and she had what looked like a mild burn on her shoulder. "I am wondering why all of us are not getting off the damn rock."

*

"Because this is our mess," Steve said. "This is about us. Abandoning people who can't get off to die just because we can is wrong."

Clint was working his way slowly towards where the rest of them were congregated. He'd come across the twins and they were all uneasily fighting in the same area, but he wouldn't call it fighting together. He didn't like things he couldn't see.

And now they were talking about bailing or going down with the ship. "Well," he said. "It _is_ a little 'Ismay getting off the Titanic'."

"Ismay took a spot someone else could have used," Doc countered. "Us staying up here serves no purpose. It doesn't help save anyone. It's not like sticking around to get as many people to safety as possible and dying in the attempt. That has some sense to it. Dying here means there's no Avengers to save the world the next time someone tries to blow it up. For what? So you don't have to feel guilty for getting off?"

One of the robots sent a blast that hit a car and sent it flying. He grabbed Wanda by the arm and dragged her into some blown out building for cover. She stared back at him, eyes haunted. "Maybe," he said into the comm. "Maybe some of us just can't carry any more guilt."

"And I'm sure I won't feel any for leaving my husband and all my friends and teammates up here to die." Doc's voice broke a little on the last word and there was a shuffling noise he imagined was Barnes hugging her.

Wanda covered her face with her hands, kneeling in the grit on the building's floor. "This is all my fault," she whispered.

Clint looked over at her, irritated for a moment. Then he sighed. She was just a kid. She reminded him right then, just a bit, of a scared and guilt-wracked redhead he'd once decided not to kill. "Hey," he said. "Look at me." He waited until she did. "It's your fault, it's everybody's fault. Who cares? Are you up for this? Look, I just need to know because the city is flying. It's flying, we're fighting an army of robots, and I have a bow and arrow." And his team was talking about making this into a suicide mission. "Nothing about this makes sense. But I'm going back out there because it's my job. Whether we're going to blow up or not. It's my job, and I can't do it and babysit you. Doesn't matter who you are, or what you did. You go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. Stay in here if you want, I'll send your brother to find you. But if you step back out that door, you are an Avenger."

Wanda didn't reply, but over the comm, Nick Fury did. "Barton, you have got a serious problem with picking up strays."

*

Darcy leaned over the back of Cal's chair to get a better look at the floating hunk of a city outside the window. "If I hadn't lived through Thor and the convergence that would probably be the weirdest thing I'd ever seen."

Steve's voice came over the bridge comms. "Fury, you son of a bitch."

"Ooo," Fury said. "You kiss Carter with that mouth?"

"He won't if he keeps up with his suicidal self-sacrifice tendencies," Sharon muttered too quietly for the comms to pick up.

"I think you should go down there and kick him in the ass personally," Hill said. They'd been able to pick up their comms for a couple of minutes now, long enough to hear the argument about gong down with the ship. City. Rock. Whatever.

"Boats secure to deploy," Bob said from his station, "In three, two. . . take ‘em out." There was a faint rumble as the lifeboat bay doors opened, letting out the high capacity, jet powered crafts.

Sharon said a few words to Fury, then went sprinting off, presumably to catch the next wave of boats going out. Once they started coming back Darcy would need to go out and start coordinating refugees. But for now she was content to watch the boats float out towards the . . . Island. She was going with island.

“So did I miss the meeting where we made Barton the official recruiter?” Barnes was saying on the comms. “This is like the third time.”

Barton’s voice was very dry when he replied, “In my defense, it worked out really well for me the first time.”

Fury shook his head. “Clint Barton with a wife. Never thought I’d see the day.”

"Sir," Hill piped up. "We got multiple bogeys converging on our left flank."

Fury actually smiled. "Show 'em what we got."

Hill returned the smile and pressed her ear. "Gentlemen? You're up."

A minute later, Rhodes came on the comm. "Now, this is going to be a good story." He shot past the front windows, and Stark came by a moment later so they could make jokes and confirm their bro-ness. 

Sam Wilson was behind them a moment later. "This is going to be a story that _no one believes_."

"I'm sure someone down there has a video phone going," Stark offered.

"Well, they better get my good side, then." Wilson winged past the windows again and a second later some metal shrapnel blew past in the other direction.

They'd turned down the comms on the ground team, but from the jumble Darcy could pick out it sounded like civilian evac was well on its way. She leaned over and kissed the top of Cal's head. "This kind of makes us big damn heroes."

"Ain't we just," he replied.

" _Incoming!_ " Hill yelled, just before one of the robots crashed through the glass.

Fury hit the deck just seconds before it crashed into his station. The robot was damaged in the crash but promptly started to pull itself along the floor with its arms, right for Cal's station. Hill put several rounds in it, but didn't slow it down. So Darcy pulled her TASER out, stepped forward, jammed it under the 'bot's chin and pulled the trigger, electrocuting it and shorting its circuits.

There was a moment of stunned silence on the bridge. Darcy dropped the TASER and backed up, bumping into Cal, who put his arms around her.

Finally Hill said, "When we get back to New York, I'm getting you a better job."


	10. Chapter 10

Steve slammed the gate closed on the lifeboat and gave the "all clear" signal to the driver. Wilson waved as he flew past, running defense on the life boat as it chugged towards the helicarrier. To his right, a few yards away, he saw Bucky and Amanda closing up another boat. They might get everyone off after all.

"Rogers!" Nat said. "Behind you."

He whirled to find a robot about to fire on him. He started to bring the shield up, knowing it wasn't going to be in time.

Then a piece of rebar came through the 'bot's eye and it collapsed, revealing Sharon standing behind it, in her tac gear, looking annoyed.

He stared at her a moment, having a strange flashback to the first time Bucky had shot an enemy Steve hadn't even seen, saving his life. Then as now, the first thing that occurred to him was a salute.

She huffed out an annoyed noise and tugged a pair of batons identical to Nat's off her belt. "Don't be cute. I'm mad at you."

He had no idea why, but he supposed they could discuss that later. "I'm really happy to see you."

"I'm happy to see you, too," she said sincerely.

"Sorry to break up the reunion," Stark said. "But Ultron's making a move at the church. Time to work for a living."

Sharon sighed. "Go. I'll catch up."

"Right." He jogged as far as where she was standing, and then stopped to give her a kiss. To his relief, she kissed him back, cupping the back of his head.

"Be careful," she said softly when he lifted his head. "I mean it."

"I will," he told her. "I promise." Then he took a breath, and took off for the church at a run.

He got there at the same time as Pietro, who paused to squint at the distance where life boats were landing on the helicarrier. "This is SHIELD?" he said, glancing at Steve.

"This is what SHIELD is supposed to be," he told him.

The kid looked back at the carrier, then grinned. "This is not so bad." He gave a little nod, then blurred, running into the church to protect the core.

The rest of them arrived at their own speeds, Nat in a front loader running down drones on her way. Amanda carrying Sharon, having gotten comfortable enough with her repulsers to actually fly properly.

"Does she need a suit?" Stark asked Steve.

"Later," Steve replied, before Sharon could say yes and distract him. For her part, Sharon was staring at Vision in confusion. "I'll explain him later, too."

"Hello, Ms. Carter," Vision said. 

Her eyes slid towards Steve. "JARVIS has a body?"

He smashed two more bots that had crawled into the church. "Seriously, don't open that can of worms right now," he said, before Stark and Doc could get into it again. 

The Hulk came thundering in, smashing the last of the drones Steve could see. Outside, Ultron loomed into view. Thor threw out his arms and bellowed, "Is that the best you can do?"

Ultron lifted one arm, and a massive swarm of robots began collecting beneath him. Steve gave Thor a look. "You had to ask."

"What's that, Steve?" Bucky said from behind him. "Did a big blond lunkhead just trash talk himself into a fight with someone bigger than him? That's awful, I can't imagine how aggravating that must be."

"Oh, just kiss already," Stark said.

"I'll allow that," Doc said.

"Me too, but you have to mean it," Sharon said, prompting Steve to turn and look at her.

"You are the _weirdest_ people I have ever met," Pierto said. "Imminent death, sex jokes, whatever."

Ultron had finally gathered his army out there, and proclaimed, "This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?" 

There was a pause as they all glanced at each other. Finally Stark looked at Steve. Well, his helmet did. "Like the old man said. Together."

Hulk roared and they all dropped into fighting stances as the drones attacked.

It was hectic, chaotic. Steve started out trying to keep any eye on Sharon, but had to stop. She was a good fighter, well trained. She could handle this. Stark, Vision, Thor and Doc buzzed around like bees, defending the core from above. Pietro picked them off at the edges, making sure no one got overwhelmed. His sister seemed to have taken Barton's pep talk to heart, holding her own.

When they were all sufficiently distracted, Ultron made his move, only to be knocked aside by Vision. They grappled and Vision managed to get him out of the church, hitting him with some sort of energy beam from the stone on his forehead. Stark joined in with his repulsers and Thor with the hammer, driving the big robot to his knees.

"Man," Doc said. "My suit doesn't have a Care Bear Stare button."

Sharon laughed, using one of her batons to knock a bot's head off. "Thank you! I knew that reminded me of something."

When the beams stopped, Ultron said, "You know, with the benefit of hindsight—" before the Hulk roared through and pitched him clear into the sky.

There were a handful of drones left, who promptly fled, Hulk on their tail.

"They'll try to leave the city," Thor said, spinning up the hammer.

Stark lifted off. "We can't let them. Rhodey, Wilson."

The sound of explosions echoed in the distance and Rhodey's voice came over the comm. "Oh no, I didn't say you could leave." 

Vision took off to help with clean up as well. The rest of them looked to Steve for orders. "We gotta move out, even I can tell the air's getting thin. Head to the boats, sweep for stragglers."

"What about the core?" Barton asked.

"I'll protect it," Wanda said. She smiled a little. "It's my job."

Barton gave her an approving nod and Nat went over to him. "Did we adopt her? Because I feel like that's something you should have ran past me."

"You were busy," he said as they went off together in the direction of the boats.

Steve turned to look at Sharon, who was waiting for him. "Shall we?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

"'Manda and I are gonna check the restaurant she was using as triage," Bucky said. "See you at the boats." They ran off in one direction while Steve and Sharon followed Barton and Romanov.

The city looked deserted, and they got the last of the stragglers on the boats. Steve was so busy thinking about how, yes, it seemed to be they were going to make it after all that he didn't notice Ultron had stolen their quinjet until he came roaring through with it, strafing everything in his path.

Sharon tucked into him so he could protect them both with the shield. When the jet had buzzed off he straightened and looked around, kind of amazed neither of them had been shot.

Barton's voice came on the comm, as upset as Steve had ever heard him. "Doc! Pietro's hit."

Steve turned to see Barton by a shot out building, a boy of about ten in his arms. Pietro lay at his feet, blood soaking the blue of his shirt. He let go of Sharon, sprinted over at a full run and skidded onto his knees. There was blood everywhere. "Amanda! Boat nine, right now!"

She landed next to him an instant later. "Move." She shoved him out of her way and checked Pietro's pulse. Scissors appeared from somewhere and she cut open his shirt so she could inspect his wounds better. She rolled him, checking his back, then opened a pouch at her hip and started jamming gauze into the exit wounds.

Sharon had taken the kid from Barton and was jogging to the boat to give him to his mother. Barton hovered behind Steve, tense, as if waiting for orders.

Over the comm, Wanda screamed suddenly, making them all flinch. Amanda's fingers went for Pietro's throat and she cursed. "No, no, no, no." A compartment popped on her wrist. "Come on, kid."

"What happened?"

"His heart stopped," she snapped, assembling a very big needle.

"You have the defib, shock him."

Bucky jogged up to them. "Oh, God, not the defibrillator thing."

Amanda was already talking. "Contrary to what Hollywood would have you believe, you don't shock a flat line. If you shock a flat line, you get an electrocuted corpse. If you want to restart a heart, you use adrenaline." With that, she jammed the very big needle into Pietro's chest.

Pietro's body jerked, and he sucked in a breath. Amanda sagged in relief. Stark landed beside them with a thunk. "You can't fly as far as the helicarrier, I'll take you both."

She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked up Pietro. Steve and Barton waited until they'd taken off and were on their way to the carrier before making their way to the boat.

Sharon wrapped her arms around him when he got there. He held her for a moment longer than he should have, because he didn't want to let go. When he finally turned, Stark was shooting back from the carrier like a rocket.

"Last call, two minutes! Everybody off?"

"Roll call," Steve said. "Carter, Barton, Barnes, Romanov on boat nine."

"Doc on the carrier," she said. "Pietro's still alive."

"You can fucking see me," Stark said. "Thor?"

"In place in the church," he replied.

"That leaves Wanda and Hulk." Hulk generally didn't respond to comm chatter verbally. But he had good survival instincts and was possibly more impervious to damage than Steve was. "Wanda, do you copy?" Nothing. "Wanda? Dammit." The scream when her brother died must have blown her comm out. Or her powers had.

"Uh." That sounded like Darcy Lewis. "Hulk just landed on the carrier. And I think he's got her with him."

*

Violet had spent most of the ride out to Europe setting up quarters for all the team members. She'd brought duffle bags with clothes and toiletries for everyone and figured they'd all appreciate stocked bathrooms and made beds whenever they got on board. She didn't let herself think about any of them not making it back.

Once the refugees had started arriving, she'd helped Darcy with organizing them. Making sure people had food and water and anyone with injuries got to the triage area. It kept her busy enough she didn't have time to think about anything else.  
 Until Darcy grabbed her and told her the Hulk had just landed on deck.

The agents parted like the Red Sea to let her through. It was windy on deck, air thin, but not dangerous yet. Hulk stood awkwardly, protecting a frail brunette girl in a red jacket. He was bleeding from bullet wounds on his leg and she winced. 

If he was wounded, then it would be hard to get Bruce back until it was healed. Still, this wasn't really a good place to hang out, so she had to try. He did turn and look at her, and rumbled, "Violet."

She hesitated, surprised. That was far clearer than he usually spoke. "Yes. Hi, honey."

He shuffled closer and it took her a few steps to realize he was shrinking, the green fading.

"Bruce?" She ran the last few feet, catching him just as he finished changing. She'd snagged a blanket on the way out and wrapped it around his shoulders. "How-?"

He blinked at her, breathing roughly. "I. . . I can. . ." He turned and looked at the girl. " _How_?"

She got to her feet slowly. "You had built a wall around him," she said in a soft, accented voice. "I built a door."

Violet shook her head. "I'm confused. Is this the girl? The twin? Didn't she-"

Bruce looked at her and caught her arms. "I can _hear him_. Talk to him."

Her jaw dropped and she looked from him to the girl in shock.

Above them, a jet roared, and Bruce looked up. "Ah, shit. Can anybody—oh, I don't have comms anymore." He looked back at Violet. "Take her inside, I'll be back in five minutes." He handed her the blanket, took half a dozen steps back, and hulked out again. He leapt upwards to catch the jet.

She blinked, too stunned to even move.

After a moment of windy silence, the girl said hesitantly, "Hi. I'm Wanda."

"Violet," she said automatically. Very slowly, she got to her feet. Then she reached out and yanked Wanda into a tight hug. " _Thank you_."

The girl's arms went around her and she pressed her face into Violet's neck, starting to cry. Mom instincts kicked in and she stroked the girl's hair. "It's all right, sweetie. It's okay."

Above them, a robot came flying out of the jet and hurtled towards the ground far below. Wanda glanced up at it, and then said, "My brother. They brought him here."

"Well then." Violet wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her towards the doors. "Let's go find him."

"He died," she said softly.

Violet hadn't heard anything about bringing a body on board. She assumed if they had they'd keep him away from the refugees. So she lead her through the holding area, up to the main part of the carrier and to the infirmary. Darcy said Amanda had come aboard earlier, maybe she'd know.

It was a madhouse in there, Amanda apparently having pressed a bunch of civilians into service. Of course, they might all be medical people. She'd imagined in a disaster they just found the triage/first aid area and got to work. At the end of the room was a glassed in operating room, and Violet could see Amanda in there, working on someone with blond hair.

"That's him," Wanda whispered. "He's alive. I can read him."

They stood at the window and Wanda pressed her hands against it, eyes gone unfocused. She smiled suddenly. "He's dreaming."

"Amanda is an amazing surgeon," Violet told her quietly. "She's saved Bucky and Steve's lives. Plus I don't know how many others, when she worked for Doctors Without Borders."

"You all have every right to hate us. And yet. . ."

Violet reached over and rubbed her back. "None of us are good at hate. Or, rather, we're very good at second chances." Wanda looked at her and she smiled. "If you've really given Bruce a way to communicate with the Other Guy, to have more control over his changes, then he and I owe you everything."

"I made him do something terrible. I suppose it was an attempt to make amends."

"You may have ensured he never does something like that again. As apologies go, that's a good one."

That made Wanda smile a little. "But God help a person who hurts your children."

Violet chuckled. "You don't have to be big and green for that to be true."

They kept vigil there at the window for a long time. Bruce eventually limped in, wounds in his leg still open, though much better than they had been. He let one of the civilian doctors look at him, then joined them at the window - in a chair. Amanda appeared about twenty minutes later, looking surprised to see them all.

"He's going to be fine," she told Wanda. "His metabolism works faster than any I've seen. I was racing his body to fix things. He'll need some rest, but I don't expect any complications with recovery."

"I felt him die," she said softly.

"His heart stopped when I was stabilizing him. I restarted it before we brought him over."

"Can I see him?"

"Of course. I'll take you to him." Wanda stood and gave Violet a small, grateful smile, before following Amanda through another door.

Violet looked over at Bruce. "I'm guessing you need something to eat."

"God, yes. Is the cafeteria on this thing even operational?"

"More or less? I'm told there's sandwiches."

He grabbed the crutch whoever had worked on him had insisted he use, and hauled himself up. "I can probably eat all the ones they have left."

When they got to the cafeteria they found the rest of the team, save for Amanda, sitting at a table with a literal pile of fruit, energy bars and sandwiches in the middle. Bruce gave a growl she usually associated with being naked and hustled the last few yards to join them.

"They didn't have any shawarma," Tony said.

"We are feasting to our victory," Thor proclaimed.

Bruce already had half a sandwich in his mouth. Violet sat and started unwrapping the next one for him. "It's good to see you all," she said. "Pietro is out of surgery. Amanda says he should make a full recovery."

"He saved my life," Clint said quietly. Nat lifted a hand and rubbed his back gently.

"Wanda did something to my head," Bruce said, drinking a soda Tony had handed him. "The Other Guy and I can talk now. He's talking right now, actually." He glanced at Violet. "He's slightly less articulate than Neil."

"She said she was trying to make amends," she told him, handing him his second sandwich.

"It's not half bad," he said around a mouthful of food.

"I have to ask this," Tony said to Violet. "Why are you here? You're here, Sharon's here. . . Is Pepper somewhere on this boat or am I the only one who doesn't get a post-world-saving conjugal visit?"

"Pepper and Jane stayed in the bunker with the kids," she told him. "I imagine they'll meet us back at the Tower, or wherever we're going. Maybe Thor can keep you company in the mean time." She grinned when the two of them exchanged looks. "I'm here because they thought having the Official Hulk Containment Person on board might be a good idea after Johannesburg. I also brought you all clothes and toiletries and made your beds."

"Oh," Nat said reverently. "Clean clothes."

"You're welcome."

Bucky suddenly sat up and grinned. "There's my girl."

Amanda joined them, a medical bag in one hand. "I knew none of you would come to the infirmary." Bruce made an offended noise and gestured to his bandaged leg. "Except for you, because you are also a doctor," she conceded. "Who needs medical care?" she asked the rest of them.

Sharon lifted both arms. "I am completely unscathed."

Steve turned in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Not even a bruise." Violet recalled there being a joke about Sharon being an injury magnet. Especially on missions.

"I have some burns," Steve confessed, "Though they're healing."

"Nat may have cracked a rib," Clint said.

She gave him a betrayed look, and said, "He needs stitches."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "The two of you." She skirted the table to sit next to Clint and work on the wound on his arm.

Bruce finished his third sandwich and reached over to pull Violet into his lap. "It's really over."

"Vision was going to sweep for any Ultron stragglers," Tony said. "But yeah. I think it's done."

"I missed the blowing up," Amanda said. "How'd that go?"

"It was glorious," Thor said. "Worthy of having a saga written about it."

"I feel more tired than I was after New York," Steve said. "I didn't know that was possible."

"You fell asleep at the table," Nat said.

"That's what I'm saying."

"Yeah," Tony said. "Me too. Any of you people actually have the energy for a conjugal visit and I'll give you a medal."

"Challenge accepted," Bucky said around a mouthful of apple. Amanda kicked him without looking up from her stitching.

Sharon yawned. "I was only there for half of it and I could sleep for a week."

"None of the beds on this boat are two person," Clint said. "Just warning you all."

"You all have your own room," Violet said. "Couples next to each other. I had a list somewhere."

"Darcy will have it," Sharon said.

Tony looked skyward and threw up his hands. "Darcy is here too,"

"And Cal," Sharon added, apparently enjoying the dismay. "And from the way Hill is muttering, Jane may me looking for a new assistant soon."

Thor groaned in dismay.

"Okay," Bruce said. "Sleep needs to happen." 

"Wait," Amanda said as everyone started to stand. She opened her bag and started handing baggies with pills to everyone. "Round ones are pain killer, oval ones are anti inflammatory, yellow ones are muscle relaxant. If you are over a hundred and fifty pounds it's two of everything. Under is one. Super soldiers have special pills in the blue baggies. Do not mix them up with your significant other's."

"It's a little sad how efficient you are at this," Nat told her, obediently taking her baggie.

Violet shifted off Bruce to root through her pockets until she found the scrap of paper she'd jotted room numbers on. "It's all the same hallway," she said after rattling them off. "If you walk in the wrong one I'm sure someone will correct you."

"Depends who is it and what's going on in there," Tony said.

"Oh, God, get your mind out of the gutter," Nat said. 

"Well that's pretty much all I have now, isn't it?"

Violet didn't hear what Nat said in reply because Bruce had herded her out the cafeteria door by then. She supposed on a ship it was called the galley. He was swaying a little, and she held onto his shirt to help steer him. "You should tell Pepper about that," he said. "Tony being whiny about her not being brought along to service him. It'd do him good to sleep on the couch for a couple days."

"I will absolutely tell her about that. After I tuck you in I might text her."

He damn near pouted. "You aren't staying with me?"

"Sweetie, it's a bed the size of an army cot. And it's only seven o'clock. I didn't fight a battle." 

"Yeah," he said. "I just missed you."

She rubbed his back and guided him down the right hallway to the barracks. "I missed you, too. I'll stay till you fall asleep." 

"Thank you. The Other Guy approves."

"Can you really hear him talking in your head?"

"Yeah. Literally a voice in the back, commenting on things." They reached his room and she typed in the code to let them in. Bruce sighed in relief when he saw the bed. "It's going to take some getting used to. But it's far better than what it was before."

"Does it mean you can talk to him when he's in charge?"

"Seems so." He limped to the bed and sank onto it. "Maybe he'll keep the comm in when we're on mission now."

"That would be good." She helped him get undressed around the injured leg. "Pepper said Tony was pretty upset at having to actually use Veronica."

"I vaguely recall him apologizing as he pummeled my face." He laid down and reached for her so she tucked herself in at his side, carefully avoiding his leg. If she were any bigger they never would have fit. "I'm still not entirely sure I'm not getting arrested for that."

"Sharon said she and the others are still working on it. I don't know that telling them an enhanced telepath reorganized your brain so it won't happen again will help, but it can't hurt."

"I've never been able to promise I can control him. But now I can, well, tell him when it's better for both of us that I drive. When I was up on the jet, after he tossed out Ultron, I could remind him that he doesn't know how to fly a jet, and anyway his hands are too big for the controls. He went right back in, and then—since I can't fly a jet either—I could call Rhodes to fly over and land the damn thing. I changed twice inside fifteen minutes, Vi. Voluntarily."

"It seemed easier on you physically, too," she said. In the past, half the times he changed he would pass out. Today he'd been coherent. "And he let you change when you were injured. He's never done that before."

Bruce smiled. "I asked him. It really is not all that unlike negotiating with Neil." He turned his head and kissed her hair. "He likes you a lot," he added.

"Well, I should think so."

"I assumed he did. But the confirmation is nice."

"I suppose it is." She leaned up to kiss his mouth, then tipped his head down to kiss his forehead. "You both need some sleep."

"Mmm," he mumbled, his eyes closed. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said softly. "Both of you." The Hulk might be frightening, but apparently he listened to Bruce when he needed him to and he would tear up a city to protect her children. She could love him for those things.

Bruce smiled sleepily and buried his face in her hair as he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You knew we weren't gonna kill of Pietro, come on. :)


	11. Chapter 11

The bed in James's bunk was absolutely not big enough for two very sore, slightly injured people. However, once they'd stripped, showered, and tended to the worst of their wounds, Amanda literally didn't have the energy to stumble next door to her bed. So they had flopped on each other in a half naked tumble and slept the sleep of the exhausted and medicated.

She woke seven hours later, neck stiff, with her hair pinched between two overlapping plates on his arm. Disentangling took five minutes and she lost a chunk of hair in the process. James snored peacefully through the entire endeavor. 

Once free, she ducked into her room to pull on clothes. Violet had brought her favorite pair of jeans and t-shirt, the one with James's big red star on the front. Her head was too sore to do anything with her hair so she finger combed it, put her combat boots back on and made her way to the infirmary to check on her patients.

When she went to look in on Pietro, she found him half awake, and Wanda asleep in a chair beside the bed. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Hello, Doctor."

She picked up his chart and was pleased to see it had been updated regularly overnight. "Hello, Pietro. How do you feel?"

"Not bad. Little like swiss cheese, but—" he shrugged. "I'm alive." He lifted his hand and tapped the unit beside his bed that was pumping his IV fluids and monitoring his vitals. It was portable and self-contained, perfect for all sorts of emergency medicine. She'd have loved one when she worked for MSF, but they hadn't existed back then. She had one just like it installed in her suit. The helicarrier infirmary had been stripped clean, but someone had thought to grab a handful of these. "It says 'Stark'."

"Tony likes a challenge," she told him. "If I had my way he'd be running a bio-medical company, but he's too easily distracted. Do you mind if I check your wounds?"

He shook his head and she put down the chart, bending over him to peel the bandages back. They were still clearly bullet holes, ugly knots of scab and scar tissue, but they looked like he'd gotten them weeks ago. One on his ribs had healed to a dark bruise, with no scar at all. And the lines from her surgery were all but gone. Fortunately, she'd had the foresight to use surgical glue and not staples, or she'd be digging them out of healed over scar tissue. "One of these days I'll get used to you super-healers," she muttered, rummaging in his side table for fresh gauze.

Pietro spoke quietly. "It's just . . . the last time I lay staring at Stark's name, I was waiting for it to kill me. Now, it's keeping me alive."

Amanda stopped to look at him. "Steve likes to say that fate is very strange."

Wanda gave a start from the chair beside them and sat up. She murmured something in a language Amanda didn't know, and then rubbed her face. "Sorry. How are you? How is he?" She directed the last at Amanda, perhaps fearing she wouldn't get an honest answer from Pietro.

 _Someday_ Amanda would get a cooperative patient.

"He's doing very well," she told Wanda, taping new bandages over Pietro's chest. He gave his sister a smug smile, which faded when Amanda added, "But he still has a lot of recovery to go. I have no idea when we're getting the New York, but when we do I'll probably want you to stay in the infirmary another night, to be safe."

"You said I was healing!" he protested.

"Yes, you are. But I've never treated anyone with your abilities before and I'm going to be conservative until I know you're totally out of the woods."

"You will listen to the doctor," Wanda said firmly.

"I am twelve minutes older than you," he told her.

The girl's face split into a wide grin. "Your heart stopped. You died. Now you are only _ten_ minutes older than me."

He shook his head and chuckled. "Fine, fine."

"How are you?" Amanda asked Wanda. "Have you eaten?"

"A woman with dark hair and glasses brought me a sandwich and fruit," she said.

God bless Darcy Lewis. Still that had probably been a few hours ago. "I am going to go see if they have hot tea. If you like, I can bring you some more food."

"Thank you, Doctor," she said quietly.

"Just Doc. Or even Amanda, if you like." Wanda smiled and nodded. Amanda updated Pietro's chart and left on her quest for caffeine.

She made her way to the galley. Stark was in there, staring out the windows and drinking from a mug. He didn't look like he'd slept. "Hey, Doc."

"Stark." There was a row of coffee carafes set up in what was probably supposed to be a buffet line. She studied them until she found one with hot water and a pile of tea bags. They were cheap black tea, but she was just grateful she didn't have to attempt to choke down black tar industrial coffee. 

She fixed herself a mug and went over to Stark, sinking into the chair next to him. He glanced at her. "If you're here to apologize for the incident with the cradle, I accept."

Amanda chuckled. "I was wrong about Vision," she conceded and he hid his surprise with a grin. She added, quietly, "That doesn't mean I'm wrong about you."

"You think I'm that much of an unbearable asshole, you're welcome to stop taking my money any time."

"I don't think you're any kind of asshole, though you play the role very well." He gave her a sharp, assessing look. "You came and talked to me when I was wrapped up in my PTSD," she continued. "I'm trying to return the favor. You need to find an outlet for this, Tony. Something that isn't tilting at windmills."

"I was trying to _fix_ it." He shook his head. "I mean, isn't that the point? That's how I operate. Here's a problem I've got, and it's torturing me, so I look for a solution. I make prototypes until one works. Engineering, as I said." He rubbed his face. "And I almost brought on what I most feared."

"Maybe it's time to stop looking at the problem like an engineer." He looked at her again and she was encouraged to see he was at least listening. "Medicine is a story in futility. They killed cats to stop the Black Plague and it ran through Europe until there was no one left to infect. We found the answer to stopping polio and small pox to have AIDS rear its ugly head. We got a handle on that and we got Ebola and MRSA. You can't save everyone. When you try, Mother Nature finds a way to kill us harder." She sipped her tea and found it harsh and bitter. "But there is a boy in the infirmary who is alive because you figured out how to fit a hospital into a backpack. If every doctor in MSF and the Red Cross had one of my suits you'd save more people than Iron Man ever could."

She could tell by his face it had not occurred to him at all. He'd built an army of suits and then an army of drones, thinking only about the front lines. About defense, or offense parading as defense. He looked at his coffee cup for a moment, and then smiled. "My Dad was friends with Peggy Carter. You know, Cap's old girlfriend." He was clearly going somewhere with this, so Amanda didn't interrupt him. But nothing she'd heard about the woman who'd helped found SHIELD indicated she wouldn't kick him in the teeth for summing her up as Steve's girlfriend. "She told me once that the bravest people in war aren't the people who get the credit for being heroes. It's the chaplains, the medics, the nurses, the radio guys. The seabees who went ashore with the marines. Because they are on the exact same battlefield, and they're there without a gun."

That was a very Stark way to come around to the point she was making. But she was going to celebrate the fact he was on the ride. "My dad was an Army Ranger, did you know that?" He shook his head. "He taught me how to shoot when I was twelve. I'm a good shot. I wouldn't give Barton or Nat a run for their money, but for someone who's never been in the military I'm up there. He used to tell me that guns were a last resort. No one ever saved the world with a gun, he said." She looked out the window at the clouds passing by. "The suits and the legion, they have their place. I'm not saying you haven't done good in the world. But you think too big. You can't save the world. I don't even know if the world wants your help." She looked back at him. "But you can save people. Stop being the world's engineer and become its doctor. Triage. Help the people you can save. Stop trying to predict the next problem. Solve the ones we've already got."

"I tried energy," he said. "Arc reactors. Great idea. Everywhere we installed them, they were eventually turned into weapons." He looked over at her. "But I guess that's still trying to stop a war before it starts, isn't it?"

"It's still thinking too big. You gave me a fortune to work on my serum and so far I've helped eight people. Eight people who were paralyzed and thought they'd be dead in a year are now walking and singing and painting. If I never give the serum to another person I'd consider my life a success. Think small. You like to tinker with James's arm. Why don't you make the best prothetic arm the world has ever seen? Figure out how to make blind people see. Make life easier for people with Parkinson's." She lifted her mug. "Seriously, Tony, anytime you want to start Stark Biomedical Incorporated, I'm there."

"Banner always wants me to build more hospitals."

She grinned. "This is what happens when you make friends with doctors."

He stared out the window for a moment. "The suit thing. Done. Get me somebody to talk to and a head count. We can start production in two weeks or so." He looked at her. "I will even consider breaking my DOD embargo for the Army Medical Corps."

"I will let Sharon deal with the government. I'll make some calls when we get home. I still have friends who work at MSF." Who were almost certainly going to need smelling salts when she talked to them about this.

"My Dad would poke at that stuff sometimes, you know. Dip his toe in being a better person. Speaking of prosthetics. He made Peggy's husband a leg. Shopped the design to the army and they said no, too expensive. They'll spend a fortune to blow people up but nothing to put them back together. He was bitter about that. But it never occurred to him to try anybody other than the VA." He looked back at Amanda. "I don't want to be like him, Doc. So frustrated about all the many things he couldn't do that he couldn't see everything he could." 

James and Steve had told her a lot of stories about Howard and the war and what they did and did not see in his son. From where she sat, Tony had a foot on his father's path and it was only the ties of Pepper and his friends that kept him hurtling down it. She pondered her words carefully. "It may not seem like it to an outsider, but you and I? We're cut from the same cloth. I told James once that the world kept hitting me so I grew hard. I think you're the same. And it's only because we have the capacity to be so soft and love so hard that we have to defend ourselves so much." She met his gaze. "So I will make you a promise. You are not going to become your father. Because I will kick your fucking ass long before it happens."

He grinned. "Deal."

*

They arrived in New York mid morning, though God alone knew what time Nat's body thought it was. Once the helicarrier hit US airspace the team hopped a couple jets and winged to the Tower. Hill, Fury and the SHIELD people stayed behind to continue dealing with the refugees but everyone agreed the Avengers had earned some R and R.

Pepper, Jane and the kids met them at the Wife Line and there was a flurry of reunions and tears. She and Clint neatly dodged it, though she stopped to greet Pepper and Jane in between the hugging to make sure London had made it back from the bunker unscathed.

They were the first people in the elevator, heading up to their apartment, still sore and drained. The cat met them at the door with very annoyed squawks and Nat scooped her up and carried her to the kitchen to shower her with wet food bribes. She could hear Panzer barking through the wall and smiled a little. Home.

"I kind of pity Pepper and Jane," Clint commented. "We left them with quite a handful."

London wound around her shoulders while she chose a can and scooped it onto a plate. "Four children. Four cats. One three legged dog." She bent to put the food on the floor and London leapt daintily off of her to start eating. "Yeah, I think I'll take the army of killer robots."

Clint was watching her, and then broached the subject neither of them had wanted to go near while on the carrier—they'd been far too interested in sex and sleep. "I don't know how you handled New York, Tash. That was _worse_ than when you got shot."

She didn't really know what to say. Apologize, maybe, though it wasn't like she'd actually _wanted_ to get kidnapped by the genocidal robot man-child. 

He didn't seem to expect a reply. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked instead.

"It actually wasn't that bad," she said honestly. "I mean, he implied he was going to try to torture me to find out where the women and kids were. But he didn't actually know how to torture anyone, so we ended up talking. I think he was lonely, in a weird way."

"He seemed to think Wanda and Pietro were. . .his."

"That's the impression I got. He talked about having connections and how they're weaknesses. But in the next minute he's lamenting how they left him and in the end they'd understand." She shrugged. "He was kind of pathetic. Like a kid who'd lost his mom. Or was trying to impress her or something."

Clint smiled. "I suppose I should not have worried."

It had been kind of nice that they'd sent someone to help her. She stepped close and wrapped her arms around him. "Next time, I'll just get in the jet with the cargo."

He pressed his face into her shoulder. "Dangerous jobs."

"We knew what we were signing up for." She rubbed his back in little soothing circles. "I noticed you seem to have developed a soft spot for Wanda."

"Fury's not wrong about me and strays."

"It does seem to have worked out for you in the past." She leaned back to look at him. "Amanda said she'll be keeping Pietro in the infirmary over night. I imagine Wanda will stay with him. I was thinking we could offer our spare room for them to sleep in. At least until another apartment presents itself. Pending your approval, of course."

He tilted his head. "We _are_ the only ones left with a guest bedroom."

"We also have experience recovering from bullet wounds. And the psychological damage of causing unintentional harm. I figure they might need that."

"I wonder if there's going to be a fight about them staying."

Nat considered it. "Well. We appear to be okay with it. Amanda was in doctor mode, so I don't know it she'll start resenting her once that wears off. Bruce had it the worst and he seems to have forgiven her since she fixed something in his head." She looked up at Clint. "We are a team of second chances."

"I don't know what number Stark is on at this point. . ."

"I think we've all just accepted that Stark is the fuck-up cousin of the family and have stopped counting."

"Rich people get away with everything."

"It's a sad fact." London had finished her meal and was twining through their legs. "If there's a fight then I suppose we'll deal with it when it comes. For now I don't think the twins have anywhere else to go. I remember how scary that feels."

"We are the refuge of the strange, aren't we?"

"Someone has to be." She was still tired and sore from the day before - the rib was almost certainly cracked - so she started to steer him towards the couch. "There is something to be said for shared life experiences."

"You think they'll stick around? Stay on the team?"

"Haven't got a good read on Pietro. I get the feeling Wanda needs a purpose. Maybe to make amends, maybe to find meaning in everything that happened to her. If she's staying he's staying. At least for the immediate future." She sank onto the couch and reclined it. "I'd feel better with them here and not out in the world with their powers."

He sat beside her and touched her knee. "You need ice?"

She bent it idly and was pleased to find it no longer clicked. "I'm all right. Those drugs Amanda handed out were amazing."

Clint stretched and took his boots of, turning sideways and taking up half the couch. She shifted and let him put his head in her lap. "I wanted to come rescue you."

"I knew you would." She stroked her fingers through his hair. It had been her first instinct when he'd been compromised. "I remember how hard it was to stick to the mission instead of going off guns blazing."

"Apparently, I can still follow orders without SHIELD."

She rubbed his neck. "There are upsides and downsides to a team," she conceded. "Worked out in the end."

"Though if your morse code had sounded at all panicked, I would have said 'screw orders'."

"The best thing is, I know exactly what panicked morse code would sound like." She leaned over and kissed him. "There wasn't a moment I didn't feel in control of the situation. Thank you for trusting me to take care of myself."

"You're welcome." He was quiet for a long moment. "Would you have gone down with the ship?"

She tipped her head back on the couch. "God, I don't know. It did feel. . . uncomfortable. The idea of leaving those people behind. But Amanda had a point about looking at the bigger picture. But, again, I long ago accepted that I would probably die on a mission." She stroked his hair. "I suppose I would have been all right either way, as long as we did it together."

"All we've got is each other." He turned and looked up at her. "You know, I don't think that's true anymore, is it?"

Her hand stilled in his hair as she thought about it. "No. Probably not. There is no one I would mourn as deeply as I would you." She didn't really see another side to Clint dying without her. "But it would hurt to lose any of them. And our loss would hurt them."

"Look at the circus they made our wedding."

She smiled fondly. "My show girl bridesmaids."

"We should go downstairs and talk to the twins," he said. 

"I suppose we should get their input before officially adopting them."

He closed his eyes. "Maybe after a nap?"

This was why she loved him. "Want to try to make it to the bed or just crash out here?"

"Well. This is a _really_ comfortable couch."

"We do sort of have a tradition of recovering on this couch."

He opened his eyes and looked up at her. "God," he said quietly. "How far we've come."

"Five years," she said softly. Reverently. Five years of pain and grief and recovery and loss. Of finding a new place in the world with each other. Of figuring out what they were to each other. She stroked a few loose strands of hair out of his eyes. "I love you. No one I'd rather be on this ride with than you."

*

The very first thing on Cal's list when he got back to New York was to purchase an engagement ring. Logic said to take Darcy along, but he had some old-fashioned ways in him, after all. Steve was right, though. It did kind of burn a hole in his pocket.

He even got down on one knee when he gave it to her.

She grinned and did a little dance, then immediately pulled him back to his feet so he wouldn't hurt his back, which had ached pretty much constantly since the night of the party. "I already said yes," she told him, presenting her hand. "Put it on me."

He slid it on, pleased that it fit. "Now comes the hard part."

"Wedding planning?" she asked, turning her hand this way and that to admire the ring. "At least I'm friends with several experts. What obscure location would you like Pepper to pull strings for us to get married in?"

"I was thinking about the part where we call our families."

She stopped looking at the ring and stared off into the distance a moment. "Fuck."

"Yeah. Exactly."

"I need a drink. Let's pretend we're celebrating our engagement and get drunk."

"We could go into the bedroom and actually celebrate, before getting drunk," he offered. He was pretty evolved, he thought, for a guy. But he had just spent five grand on a small shiny rock. It seemed logical there should be some nookie after that.

" _Yes_." She cupped his face and he could feel the hard little band against his cheek. "That is an even better idea. Also? Let's elope."

He began backing her towards their bedroom. "Like to Vegas?"

"No, that's still a production. We'd end up with the whole team or have to buy plane tickets." She flicked on the light switch as they crossed the threshold. "I'm saying after the celebratory sex we look up marriage license laws in New York and plan a visit to the courthouse."

He yanked her shirt over her head. "Deal."


	12. Chapter 12

Sharon spent two days on the phone and in video chats and meetings helping deal with the aftermath of Sokovia and Johannesburg. Governments were getting very serious about some sort of oversight for the Avengers. And who, exactly, they were going to hold responsible for the damage. With Fury and Hill dealing with the refugees and the rest of the team nursing their wounds and taking much needed time with their families, she was the only one left to pick up the pieces.

She didn't see much of Steve. He was making the rounds, checking in on the group, helping the Bartons rearrange furniture so the Maximoff kids could move into their spare room. There were a lot of things she needed to say to him. But the ten minutes it took her to shower and collapse into bed next to him were not the time to bring it up.

Finally, after talking to what felt like every head of state and half the members of the NSA and Homeland Security departments, she finally had a fragile but sustainable balance and could get some peace and quiet.

She had no idea where Steve was, but for the moment stretching out on the couch with her cat sounded lovely. She'd need to set up some meetings and discuss this with the team, of course. But the best person to start the conversation with was the team leader. Who happened share her bed. And who was currently god-knows-where.

Barnabas eagerly came out of hiding when she sat on the couch and she pet him. She could read, or work out a bit. Though she should really make an attempt to find Steve first. She had her mouth open to ask JARVIS to ping him when she stopped and remembered he wasn't there anymore. Stark was still trying out new AIs and hadn't set one up building-wide yet.

And that, for some inexplicable reason, made her cry. Almost a week of constant stress, the fight with her friends, nearly losing Steve and the others. And it was the realization that JARVIS, at least the JARVIS she had known and depended on, was gone that made her break down.

The door rattled, startling her. It was Steve, apparently discovering he had to open the door manually now. If JARVIS had still been there, she'd wonder if Steve had some sort of standing order to be summoned if Sharon was upset. But at the moment, it was probably just good instincts.

She got up to go to the kitchen for a drink and a paper towel to blow her nose with when he managed to get the door open. It looked like he'd been working out, possibly with Bucky or Thor. Furniture moving generally wasn't enough to get him to break a sweat. "You okay?" he asked, stopping short when he saw her.

"I'm fine," she said, despite sounding obviously very not fine. "Last few days are just hitting me." She was fairly certain if she actually admitted she missed JARVIS she'd start crying in earnest. Then he'd start doing that helpless, confused Golden retriever face and she'd never get a damn thing done.

He walked towards her and held out his arms. "C'mere."

For the moment she was content to put the mad at him thing on hold and step into his arms, tucking herself against his chest. His heartbeat was steady and solid under her ear. She sniffled inelegantly. "Hugs are good."

He held her tight, rocking her a little. "God, what a week it's been."

She nodded. "Normally I'd still be on edge. But I think the world is probably out of shoes to drop."

"Meetings going well?" he asked.

"More or less." She leaned back and tore off a paper towel to wipe her eyes. "No one is going to arrest Banner, though it's probably in everyone's best interest he lay low for a while. Amanda had some sort of come to Jesus meeting with Stark and now he's decided to make equipment for the Army Medical Corps of all people, so that's winning us some friends. Pepper's coordinating relief efforts in South Africa and Sokovia. Hill's on her way back with the last of the refugees that the US government has agreed to give asylum to." She blew her nose. "There's still the matter of finding some form of oversight for the team. No one is willing to let us be free agents anymore, so I need to find who's going to give us the most freedom for the least hassle which means steely eyed negotiations with men twice my age so I suppose it's good I'm having a cry _now_ instead of in front of them."

"Honey, you held your ground against Pepper Potts, who routinely puts some of the biggest, testosterone-laced egos in the world in their place. You'll be fine."

That made her smile a little. Then she shook her head. "Shit, I need to make sure someone calls Immigration and gets visas for the twins." She covered her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry. You don't like that kind of talk."

"Oh, bullshit," he said. "I am not owning that. That was about Banner's kids. We do not have kids." He leaned back a little. "We should."

She had been starting to laugh to show she was teasing, but it died pretty quick. "Have kids?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Take a break from dealing death and make a life."

Her brows had to be in her hairline. "You mean, like, right now?"

"I mean, I understand there is some gestating time involved." 

Sometimes she really understood how Aunt Peggy got so frustrated with him she shot at him. Sharon pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay. We need to talk."

"Well, I didn't mean like 'go find Doc' _right now_ right now."

"No, I know. I just. . ." She sighed and crossed her arms. "Three days ago I listened to you prepare to stand on a floating rock and get vaporized because it was the right thing to do. And nowhere in your debate with Amanda and the others did I hear even a moment of concern for leaving me behind. I love you and I want children with you. But not unless you can promise me that you have some sort of handle on this self-sacrifice instinct of yours."

He took a step back. "Of course I thought of you. I didn't know I needed to announce that over the comm. They all have someone."

Deep breaths, Carter. Don't cry again or you won't get anywhere. "All right. I shouldn't have accused you of not thinking of me. But that doesn't address my actual main concern about this being sort of a pattern with you."

"It's kind of the nature of the job." He shook his head. "You get angry if I'm hesitant about putting _you_ in harms way."

"There is a difference between getting killed in the line of duty while fighting and standing on a rock that you could get off of and letting yourself get blown up."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "You won't die in a fight if you run away from that, either."

Oh, good, she was so hoping she'd get to have this argument with Captain America and not her fiancé. "Which was great when it was just you against the world. But now you have me. And you want to add kids to that. Would you like to go next door and ask Violet if she thinks 'don't worry, he died with honor' makes the tiniest bit of difference to a three year old who'll never see their dad again?" She paused to breathe. "Your father died in the first World War. And I know you were proud of him. So proud your threw yourself at every fight you came across to prove you were just as brave as him. But can you really, honestly tell me that you wouldn't have preferred having _him_?"

That seemed to stop him. "I wanted Doc to get off," he said slowly. "For Edie. If I'd have thought about it long enough, I'd have tried to herd the Hulk off the side. In the interest of children not losing Daddy twice." He paced towards the widows and said, "You're not wrong."

She followed him, but left him space. "I don't think that situation had a right or wrong," she said softly. "I know leaving people behind. . . isn't in your nature. I love you for that. But having kids means that there is something more important than your honor or duty waiting for you at home. I accept that I may have to have the 'Daddy isn't coming home' conversation. But if I'm going to have it, I want to know without a shadow of a doubt that you did everything in your power to get home to us. That wouldn't have been true the other day."

"You told me SHIELD used to keep me in a Captain America bubble, because Fury didn't trust me to handle moral ambiguity. Bucky likes to tell me I've always been terrible with shades of grey."

"I think Bucky knows you very well," she said carefully. "And I think the reason you and Amanda were the two arguing is that all she sees is grey. And the reason that you and Tony bump heads is you can't agree what's black and what's white."

"It easier," he said. "I don't have to risk being wrong." He looked over at her. "When I crashed the plane into the Arctic, when I realized it was heading for New York, Peggy wanted to go get Howard to try and talk me through a landing. I wouldn't let her." His eyes wandered back to the skyline. "Could I have landed it before it hit New York? Probably. But it might have hit somewhere with people. And I'd have to decide where. Maybe it would be a Newfoundland fishing village. Maybe it would be a mid-sized town in Maine. Maybe just an unlucky hunter in a forest. Maybe nobody at all. What was the risk, and how big? If I took it down in the Arctic, I could be sure."

Now they were treading into new and possibly dangerous territory. But he'd opened the door. And maybe it was best to get these things out in the open. "After you came back she talked about you a lot more. Sometimes she remembered you were alive, sometimes not. It just seemed to trigger something. One time, when I'd come to visit, she told me she thought that after Bucky died you were. . ." Peggy had used the word suicidal, but it seemed weird to say that to his face. "That you didn't think you had anything to live for. And that whatever fragile thing you and she had started wasn't enough."

Sharon reached out and touched his hand, weaving her fingers through his when he didn't move away. "I can live with not being enough on my own. My grief against a few thousand lives, I can see that going the other way. But I need our kids to be enough. They need to be so big a weight that they'll win any risk assessment you're making."

"It's not why I crashed the plane," he said after a moment. "But I'd be lying if I said that it didn't influence the decision. Not having to live with my grief. And look what I got for it. I woke up and I'd lost _everyone_." He swallowed and looked down at her. "You are worth living for."

She leaned in and kissed his shoulder. "I love you," she said softly. "You are surrounded by people who love you. Who would mourn you the rest of their lives."

"I think people did that last time, too," he said. He said it not as a defense, but as a sad realization. "Wanda showed us our fears, and I was afraid of living and grieving."

"Everyone is afraid of that," she told him. "Why do you think I want to go on missions with you? Why do you think the women here bonded together the way we have? It isn't just about shoes and shopping. No one wants to be the one left alone."

"Yeah." He sighed. "I'm sure my nightmares will take new shapes. She made Bruce see something bad happening to Ada and Neil. That's why he tore up Johannesburg."

"Children change everything." She leaned on his arm, looking out at the skyline. "I'm told they're worth it."

"You are worth living for," he said. "But I expect they are worth killing for." He wrapped his hand around hers on his arm. "Bucky told me Edie made him okay with everything that had happened to him. That she made it better."

"He does seem more. . . at peace since she was born. Amanda too, now that I think of it."

"Maybe it will be a different black and white. Maybe it will make it easier."

"Maybe it will." She squeezed his arm. "If you ever need help seeing some grey, I am happy to make my opinion known."

He actually considered that. "Say no helicarrier. When would you have gotten off?"

She took a deep breath, looking at the city again. "When I couldn't help the civilians anymore," she said. "If I can't save them and I'm not a comfort to them." And she was pretty sure watching superheroes stand around helplessly wouldn't have been a comfort. "I would probably have tried to take some kids with me, if I was in a suit like Amanda's or something. If there was a parent who wanted me to."

"I don't have a suit, or mode of transportation. I'd have to be flown down in the jet, if it was intact, or taken down by one of the fliers. I guess I got stuck on that. On why I was worth the lift more than any other person standing on that rock. Going down with the ship was a great way to avoid making that decision." He looked down at her. "I'm sorry."

"I forgive you," she said quietly, stretching up to kiss him. 

He shifted her so he could get both arms around her. "I suppose we should get married first."

"I seem to recall you and Bucky having a _very_ old fogey conversation about being married before having kids while Amanda with her visibly round belly rolled her eyes in the background."

"You could think of this as me trying to adapt to modern times."

She laughed. "Let's at least pick a date before we start yanking the IUD string."

"I know you have a lot on your plate right now."

That was an understatement, but she was glad he'd pointed it out and not her. She ran her hands across his chest. "I am very in favor of kids. Especially kids with you. But why don't we put the discussion on hold until we have a better idea of what the future holds?"

"As long as it doesn't become one of those perpetually waiting for the right time things. That's what got us in this mess in the first place."

"It won't. I promise."

"Okay. I'm ready when you are, but no rush. Honestly."

"Okay," she said softly. "As soon as I'm there, you will be the first to know." She ran her hands down to hold his hands. "In the meantime. . . I hear good things about practicing."

He grinned widely. "Yes, ma'am."

*

It seemed like he had just gotten settled back in the Tower and now he had to leave again.

Bruce sighed and zipped his duffel bag closed. Sharon was pretty confident he wasn't going to be arrested and tried for acts of terror or anything. But while she negotiated with various governments on the the fate of the Avengers, everyone had agreed it would be a good idea for him to make himself scarce. So he was headed back to India, where he'd hidden out once before.

Violet appeared in the doorway. "All packed?"

He hefted his bag. "Back to my Kerouac days." They had done their best to prepare the kids, but it was still impossible to discuss the topic with Ada without a full on melt-down. Violet was going to have to peel her off him when he left and he was pretty sure it was going to break his heart.

Ada was having a rough time of it as it was. Her iPad, which contained the last copy of JARVIS's "personality", had been destroyed while everyone had been fighting in the lab. Whatever system Tony was building on JARVIS's base routines, it wasn't the same. Vision had gone to Asgard with Thor after the battle—and he wasn't JARVIS anyway. "I was thinking in the shower this morning. Might be a good idea for Ada to talk to someone."

"I'd thought the same," Violet said. "I'm not entirely sure how to explain all of this to a children's therapist."

"Her components aren't that complicated. If you find someone who can ignore the irrelevant extraordinary elements." He sat on the end of the bed. "Her best friend died, and she thinks it might be partially her fault." Yesterday she'd told them that if she hadn't handed over her iPad, JARVIS would still be alive. Being seven, it didn't matter to her that that had been, in the end, necessary to save the world. "And. . . Daddy has to go on the lam?" He winced. "Maybe we'll go with extended business trip."

"Humanitarian aid trip to India," Violet said. She stepped closer and he put his arms around her. "Even if I do cook up a story someone mundane will believe, this is Ada we're talking about. Sooner or later she'll tell them how her friend was an AI and how she spent a couple days in a bunker with a movie theater and her Daddy turns into a big green monster who _seems_ scary but he's really just misunderstood. And how her Uncle is Iron Man and offered to build her a suit and Captain America is giving her drawing lessons."

"Tony asked me if she was serious about the telescope."

"She probably was, but she's not in a good place to be making once in a life time reward decisions." She pressed her face into his hair. "I will talk to Amanda and see if she knows anyone. She mentioned trying out therapists for her PTSD."

"At this point, maybe we should just convince Tony we need one on staff."

Violet laughed and started to respond but was interrupted by the door bell. She looked up for a second and her face fell. "I miss him too," she admitted with a sigh.

He kissed her. "Tony is working on a new. . . butler. I believe he's using FRIDAY, the one he had in the suit. It's a woman's voice." He stood up. "In the meantime, I'll get the door."

As he was leaving, he heard her unzip his bag. Ten to one he ended up with an extra week of underwear and some warmer shirts when she was done with it. Of course, it would also probably be better folded and more efficiently packed, so who was he to complain?

Ada and Neil were on the couch when he passed, her with a book and he putting together a peg puzzle. A pang went through Bruce as he thought of how different they were since he'd met them. And how very much they would change while he was gone.

He pulled the front door open to reveal Vision. Which . . . was not even a little bit what he'd expected. "Hi."

The android folded his hands in front of him. "I was wondering if I might speak with Miss Ada."

Before he could even open his mouth, she'd gotten of the couch and dashed over, ducking under Bruce's arm. "Who are you? Why are you purple?"

"I am Vision," he replied, looking down at her. "And I am the color I was created."

She studied him a moment, face slowly becoming a scowl. "You sound like JARVIS."

"I know," he said gently. "But I am not him."

"Well, then why do you sound like him?"

"Because I was made from him."

"Remember, we talked about this," Bruce said. "JARVIS had to make something new, to save the world."

She looked up at him. "This isn't a something, Dad. This is a person."

Scolded by a seven year old. Welcome to parenthood.

Vision crouched down to Ada's level. "In your father's defense, I am not entirely a person. Nor am I precisely a robot. I am something. . . new. Many people had a hand in my creation, including JARVIS and your father." She made a face and he titled his head and gave what might have been a smile. "I agree, it is rather confusing."

"So you're like a baby? I asked Mom for a baby sister and she said no. My friend Emily at school got a baby sister. And my friend Katie said that 'cause I got a new Dad that I'd probably have a new baby, but Mom said no. A brother would be okay."

Bruce covered his eyes with a hand and made a mental note to have Violet revisit that topic with her at some point.

"I am new and still learning about the world," Vision said. "I suppose that makes me like a child. A great many things are confusing. I don't remember anything from when I was JARVIS. Except for you. I remember. . . that we were friends. I would like to continue to be your friend."

"What's that glowy thing in your forehead? Is it like a bindi? They have those in India."

This time he was definitely smiling. "It is not a bindi. It's something called the Mind Stone, a relic of infinite power that, when combined with the other-"

Bruce cleared his throat loudly and shook his head in warning. Ada did not need to know about the space artifact of infinite doom.

"Ah." Vision looked back at her. "It gives me power. And awareness. Like a brain."

"It's the same color as Mr. JARVIS's pattern on my iPad."

"As I said, there is quite a bit of him in me. Much they way you share appearance and mannerisms with your mother."

She studied him in that intent way of hers. "Okay, Mr. Vision. We can be friends."

"Thank you," he said very sincerely.

"Do you want to come in? I have a new star chart."

He glanced up at Bruce. "If it's all right with your father." Bruce nodded and Vision stood and followed Ada into the living room where she had been looking at her star chart. Neil looked up from his puzzle and stared at him in startled awe. "Hello," Vision said to him.

Neil blinked a couple times, then grinned. "Like cape!"

Violet had come out a the noise and Bruce joined her in the doorway. "Is that-?"

"Apparently one of the few things he remembered about being JARVIS was that Ada was his friend."

"So now instead of her best friend being an advanced AI that lives in our ceiling it's going to be an android with a magic alien stone in his head?"

"I'd be astonished if she doesn't _also_ bond with FRIDAY when she comes on line." He looked back towards the bedroom. "Did you repack my bag?"

"If you roll shirts you can fit more in and they wrinkle less."

"I'm struggling to think when you got the impression I care or even notice if my shirts are wrinkled." He looked down at the one he was wearing, and was surprised to notice it was not at all wrinkled. Of course it wasn't. She was doing his laundry now.

"Well, I've never sent anyone off into hiding," she said, sounding so dignified and huffy he knew it had to be a front. "I don't know the etiquette."

He put his arms around her. "I'm sorry. I hope it won't be too long."

She curled her arms around him, pressing her face into his chest. "I'm going to miss you. So much."

 **NO CRY.** The voice in his head was still taking some getting used to. "I'll miss you too. All of you. I'm not looking forward to being alone again. Also, the Other Guy wants you not to cry."

She laughed a little and lifted a hand to ruffle the back of his hair. "Sorry, big guy." She took a deep breath and leaned back to look at him, mercifully dry eyed. "Maybe some time alone will be good for the two of you. Figure out your new relationship."

"Well. That's true. He's certainly company." Company that thought Neil should be tickled every day, loved hot water, and for some unknown reason got upset every time Bruce ate potatoes.

Violet took a deep breath and put on a brave smile. "Cal thinks he can set up some sort of email you can access when you have internet. So I'll fill it with pictures and things. That should keep you both content."

"And I'll be home as soon as I can."

She nodded and leaned up to kiss him, first on the mouth, then the center of his forehead. It was a habit she had picked up in the last few days. He suspected it was her way of showing the Hulk affection, now that he was a bigger part of Bruce's psyche. The Other Guy seemed to take it as such, too, based on the sense of preening pride he gave off whenever she did.

"I look forward to welcoming you home," she said sincerely.


	13. Chapter 13

_Six months later_  
_March, 2018_  
_New Avengers Base_  
_Ithaca, New York_

"Be careful with that, it's delicate."

Bucky grit his teeth to keep from suggesting that if Amanda's equipment was that delicate she should have had the movers move it, not him. He set the machine onto the shiny new worktable and stretched. "Do you really need all this stuff or do you order it just because you know Stark will buy it?”

She huffed as she set down her file box and surveyed the mess that was her new infirmary. "I like to be prepared."

Staying in the city had become untenable, for a whole host of reasons, from the mundane (they were seriously running out of space trying to share Stark Tower with all of the Stark Industries people), to the serious (the city itself was adamant it didn't want the Hulk residing in Manhattan). They could no longer operate as an entirely private arm of Stark Industries. 

What they got, in the end, was protection and funding from the US government. It was a joint venture, so they still had the funding of an eccentric billionaire—for certain things—but they'd acquired oversight. Negotiating terms had apparently been a tough slog, tough enough Fury had admitted to not being dead so he could help. Mostly they'd gotten what they wanted, and that was almost entirely Sharon's doing. Bucky heard tell of her staring down the President himself and threatening to take the Avengers to work for China—a bullshit bluff worthy of Natasha, particularly for Captain America's wife. But she sold it, somehow, and they'd gotten what they wanted. She'd never reminded him of Peggy more.

Not that he'd mention that to Steve.

So they had ended up in upstate New York, not that far from the property Nat had bought Clint as a shooting gallery years ago and spitting distance from Cornell and its swarm of medical students for Amanda to plunder. Even a city boy like Bucky had to admit it was gorgeous. And raising Edie somewhere with land and clean air was appealing. They even had real houses, instead of apartments, a little cluster of them that Darcy Lewis has dubbed Avengerville. It reminded Bucky of the neighborhood he and Steve had grown up in. Granted, they'd lived in tenements, not sprawling, custom homes. But the communal "gather in the yard and shoot the shit" vibe was similar.

"I've been thinking," Amanda said, shaking him out of his thoughts. "Edie's birthday is next month. Maybe we should do something."

"Like throw a party?" They weren't even done unpacking.

"A small one. If the weather holds we could grill outside." She shrugged. "Just the team. Any excuse to celebrate, right?"

"That's very domestic," he replied. "I kind of like it."

"Wow, Doc, nice digs." Bucky glanced over his shoulder to see Tiffani standing in the doorway. "You were not kidding." Amanda had been inordinately pleased that that all of her staff, to the last man/woman, had been willing to uproot themselves and follow her to the expansive new facility Stark had built her. It was probably one of the most sophisticated and cutting edge labs in the world. 

Amanda grinned and patted the file box at her elbow. "Ready to help me unpack?" she asked her nurse.

Tiffani looked at the boxes in dread. "Never mind, I quit."

"Don't be like that, I have a new group of MSF trainees coming at the end of the month. Maybe you can corrupt a few."

"You do know how to bribe a girl."

Stark had been true to his word, outfitting both Doctors Without Borders and the US Med Corps with versions of Amanda's suit. She was running regular training seminars on how to use them and requests for modification and specialization were coming in all the time. In addition to her continuing serum work, she'd be heading up an army of doctors and researchers working on everything from cancer to prosthetics to Helen Cho's new-skin wound care. Whatever Amanda had said to him after the final battle with Ultron, it had created a bit of a monster.

"The man never does anything halfway, does he?"

"I don't believe he's capable of it," Amanda confirmed. Tiffani slipped into the room and chose a box to unpack and Amanda stepped over to put her arms around Bucky. "I have her to torture now," she said. "If you want to go shoot things I will not begrudge you."

"Have I told you today I love you?"

"No, but you should save it for later when I ask to go shooting with you."

"Am I allowed to find that prospect hot?"

"You totally are." She kissed him. "I used to like shooting with my dad. Stopped when I got busy with medical school. I thought it might be nice to pick it up again."

"We are living in the country now." And the weather was finally warming up and the snow melting. Maybe Steve would stop complaining about it soon.

"Hey, when it gets warmer maybe I'll teach you how to fish."

He leaned back to peer at her. "Sometimes I forget you're a country girl."

She made a face and kissed him. "Can't take the Carolina out of the girl." Her hand slid down and she gave his ass a smack. "Go have fun. I'll see you for dinner."

*

When Stark was building the base housing—having been in the military, that's how Clint thought of it—he'd asked everyone for their opinion. The lack of architectural consistency among people's idea of an ideal house was so significant he threw up his hands and said everyone could just pick their own. Clint was pretty sure that doubled the cost, but that was Stark. He liked nice things, and he liked to make his team happy.

It did give the housing area an unplanned, old neighborhood feel. You could see each of them in the houses they built. Most chose from one of the architect's myriad plans with only minor alterations. 

Clint and Nat's house was a little different. Part of the several hundred acres Stark had bought had been a farm, and the original 19th century house still stood on the shores of the lake. It was a massive gothic structure, and Clint had wanted it for their house. Nat had been very opposed to living in a drafty Victorian house during lake-effect snows, and the ensuing dispute eventually resulted in a brand new house built from adapted plans from the 1880's. It had been the last to be finished. It still wasn't, really, because Clint really wanted to do some of the work himself. All Stark had said, when shown the blueprints, was "Oh, of course it has a turret."

Which, of course, was where Clint was sitting while he pondered his project list. He heard Nat's steps below him a moment before she called up, "Are you lurking up there to avoid unpacking?"

He peered down the hatch to where she stood at the bottom of the ladder. "I was thinking we need a shed."

A brow arched. "What _kind_ of shed?"

He got up and climbed down the ladder. "You were talking over the winter about starting a garden. It's spring now. You should have a shed for your tools."

"You're going to build me a gardening shed?" she asked, smiling. 

"Yes. Could probably attach a chicken coop to it."

She opened her mouth, probably to mock him about farm animals, then stopped to consider it. "Fresh eggs do taste better," she mused.

He grinned. "I will build it."

"I draw the line at chickens. No cows. No goats."

"Stark's getting Violet's kids horses."

"And as long as they don't live in my backyard, I'm fine with that." She headed for the stairs. "Darcy said you got another package from LL Bean. Do we need to talk about this plaid shirt problem you are obviously developing?"

He looked down at his shirt. "What's wrong with that?"

"You are a sniper with a kill count in the triple digits and you look like Paul Bunyan. Are you telling me you wouldn't comment if I started wearing gingham?"

"You know I'm from Iowa, right? We're in the country now."

She paused on the stairs and looked up at him. "So this has been lying dormant all this time? Are there other symptoms I should look for? Enormous belt buckles?"

"They actually make one with my symbol thing on it. Apparently I'm popular with that crowd."

That made her grin. "That I will allow."

"So if the cow or goat was somewhere other than our yard, that would be okay?"

"As long as I don't have to care for it or smell it I don't care what you do." She walked up a couple steps to tug at his flannel. "You wanna get a dog? We have a yard now."

"Don't tell me you miss the sound of Panzer barking through the wall?" Not that you couldn't still hear him barking from the Barnes's dog run.

"No, but I'm a fan of optics. And a man with a healthy flannel shirt collection and what I can now assure you will be a ridiculous number of belt buckles once I spread the word that you like them, which I will because I'm like that, that's a man that needs a dog."

He grinned. "I would love a dog."

She returned the grin and went up on her toes to kiss him. "I'll break the news to London gently."

"It'll keep the deer out of the yard," he commented. Nat wouldn't let him shoot the deer out of the house windows.

"And the neighborhood kids will give it all the exercise it can handle."

"We are. . . frighteningly domestic." He looked down at her. "But it's good. Isn't it?"

"It is." She leaned into him. "By all rights you and I should be dead a dozen times over. Instead we're setting up house in upstate New York surrounded by our best friends and talking about dogs and shaping up to be the cool aunt and uncle." She smiled. "I'm good with that."

"Good." He kissed her. "I'm going to drive into town to get lumber."

"I'm going to make a big pitcher of lemonade so I can watch you be manly."

"Sounds like a plan."

*

Darcy gave herself a once over in her mirror and carefully and systematically smushed the vague feeling that she was a little kid playing dress up. She was a fully grown professional adult and no one would be able to tell otherwise. She adjusted her glasses, grabbed her clipboard and headed downstairs, ducking into the family room where Cal sat under the biggest TV she had ever owned, surrounded by a sea of wires.

"Husband," she said, because after six months that _still_ sounded awesome. "I have to go meet the last of the inmates. Do you promise not to electrocute yourself before I get back?"

"The last time I could reliably promise not to electrocute myself I was a toddler who had not yet noticed the electrical socket."

She sighed. "FRIDAY? Please ping my phone if Cal electrocutes himself."

"Of course, Mrs. Bennet."

That had not gotten old, either. She picked her way through the wires to kiss him. "The Maximoff house is fully wired and ready to go, right?"

"Yes. As best as it can be." Wanda and Pietro had the only original building on the property, a very old house that had been as much work to renovate as building something from scratch. Darcy kind of admired its quirky charm. Cal had not enjoyed running the fiber optic lines through the walls.

"Good, thank you."

When it had become abundantly clear that the Avengers would need to leave Manhattan, Maria Hill had made good on her promise to get Darcy a better job. Her "official" title was Head of Facilities. Her business card said Avenger Cat Herder. She had done everything from organize building permits, foreman the many, many building projects over the fall and spring, approve and order equipment for all the eggheads settling in and coordinate with the Cornel people to find promising med students to work with Amanda and her team. Now that people were moving in she was going to add RA to her duties. Once the buildings started coming online and running at full capacity there would probably be talk of getting her an assistant of her own.

Cal, of course, had tagged along to be Head of IT for the campus. Over night their income had tripled. Not bad for newlyweds.

"I need to go give them the tour," she said. "Then I need to duck into the office to check some orders but I will be back in time to cook you dinner because I'm awesome."

"You _are_ awesome." Her kitchen was awesome, too. The one at the Tower had been nice, but this one she'd been able to fit out herself. She was the one the builders had asked about appliances, after all.

Stark had announced early on that he was not building a town. The apartments in the Tower had served a purpose mostly related to the cost of housing in New York City, but you could buy a house in Ithaca for a hundred grand (an amount of money that Stark made sound like pocket change). Which, to him, it probably was. No one but the Avengers themselves would live on the property. There was a small building near the labs that had apartments for the visiting doctors, interns or other temporary employees, but the team were the only permanent residents.

Darcy and Cal had just tentatively started house hunting when she'd been sent the site plan for the housing area and found it contained a lot labeled _Bennett_.

Stark had put up with her calling him Santa, Daddy Warbucks and Unca Scrooge remarkably well. Fortunately he spoke the same dialect of irreverent snark she did and heard "Thank you so much I am flattered and touched" loud and clear.

She kissed Cal goodbye and headed out of the house. She suspected they'd earned brownie points for being the only other couple to choose the super-modern-glass-and-chrome housing model that Stark favored. It fit with her and Cal's life the best. Cal had worked closely with the builders of all the houses to make sure everyone had the best electrical and internet humanly possible. Even Stark had been impressed.

Avengerville was shaped like a rough circle, with a huge shared front yard in the middle. Half the houses backed up into the woods, the rest onto the private lake. The center area held an extremely well fenced playground and dog run plus a pavilion with a ridiculously nice grill and out door oven. They would eventually add a pool and gym, but priority had been given to housing and business buildings. Besides, they'd needed to wait for the ground to thaw fully before starting the pool. Digging would start in a couple weeks.

They each had little electric cars. Much slicker looking than golf carts, fully glassed in and self driving—but they were still, effectively, golf carts. Many jokes were made, but Darcy loved the little things. She got in, told FRIDAY where she wanted to go, and could do something useful—or nothing at all—with the time.

Right now, for example, she could email the culinary department, scan through her delivery manifest and text Amanda about a delay in opening the prothetic limb wing because of an inconvenient bee infestation.

_Honey bees? See if we can get an apiarist to capture them, Violet was talking about starting a hive._

Everyone was taking this back to nature thing _way_ too seriously.

The SUV with the twins was pulling into the main gates just as Darcy's golf cart reached it. She climbed out and waved to the two of them as they climbed out.

Wanda waved back. Pietro twisted himself around to crack what sounded like every joint in his body. Cal would appreciate it. He liked to crack his knuckles and his neck and whatever else he could manage. Darcy made him do it out of earshot because it gave her the willies. 

"I like the woods," Wanda said. "Reminds me of home."

"There's a lake, too," Darcy offered, coming over to take one of their bags. The rest of their stuff had been delivered earlier in the day, including a mish-mash of furniture donated by the rest of them. "I know you've been cooped up in the car for a while. Do you want to stretch your legs a bit or go straight to the house?"

"Which way?" Pietro asked. Darcy pointed and he was gone, leaving nothing but a breeze ruffling their hair.

Wanda sighed. "He's never been good with long car rides."

"I feel that." They carried the suitcases to the golf cart and climbed in. 

"So how has it been here?” Wanda asked. “I know you've been up here quite a while. Must be nice to have it look less like a construction site." It still did look like a construction site in a lot of places. But it was a vast improvement over the portion of the winter Darcy and Cal had spent living in a trailer in what would become their front yard.

"It's coming together." The cart hummed pleasantly as it headed towards the housing area. "The residential stuff is finally done. I'm really happy you guys offered to keep the old house. Every neighborhood needs a creepy old Victorian."

Wanda laughed. "Americans. One hundred years isn't old."

Darcy grinned. "It's old enough."

"I like a house with history to it. People lived there. Loved there. Were born and died there."

"Will you be able to. . . hear all that?" Darcy still wasn't entirely sure how Wanda's powers work. She swung between thinking they were cool and really sucky.

The other woman shrugged and looked out the window at the trees. "I didn't get anything in the Tower. Too new, too much electronics. But once in a while I would walk in the city and find myself somewhere old. Brick buildings packed in together, Sometimes I'd. . . hear things." She looked back at Darcy. "Maybe this house will be the same."

"So you. . ." How to phrase this? "Can hear dead people?"

"I don't think it's ghosts," Wanda said thoughtfully. "I think it's memories. Have you ever been anywhere where there had been a tragedy and had the feeling the event had scarred the place? It's like that. Strong memories leave a mark."

"Probably some sort of electrochemical resonance remnant or something," she said. Wanda gave her a look and she added, "I made that up. Thor and Jane have this long running thing where she attempts to translate fantastical Asgardian science stuff into Earth Language. I make jokes about it now. But on a summer night, with the windows open, I bet you'll hear them arguing about the laws of physics that humanity hasn't discovered yet." 

Wanda smiled. "Pietro is right. You are very strange people. But a very good kind of strange."

"I'm putting that on our letterhead."

They pulled into Avengerville, winding around the path to stop in front the old gothic the twins would be living in. Pietro was standing in front of it, looking past it, at the lake. "Do you think I can run on the water?" he called when they climbed out.

"You are not Jesus," Wanda called back.

"Are you sure? I _have_ been resurrected."

Wanda rolled her eyes. "You fall in, I'm not fishing you out."

They headed up to the house and Darcy unlocked it for them before handing Wanda the keys. "Not that we're really concerned about crime, but you can lock up if you want. Your computers, phones and tablets are on your beds. There's a computer terminal in the den. Maps of the compound are on all the devices and pinned to the fridge. The huge house over there is Violet and Bruce. She says you're welcome for dinner. Any questions?"

She smiled. "I never have questions." She inhaled slowly. "No, that's not right. If I do have questions, do you prefer I ask you out loud, or scan in your head?"

"Out loud," Darcy said. "I'm guessing that's gonna be universal."

"Steve told me I could read him. I did it once." She cleared her throat. "Perhaps I will try again when he's been married a little longer."

"Yeah, that might not help. Lotsa sex going on around this place." She checked her watch. "Sorry. If you're good I have people I need to yell at. Team numbers are in your phones and posted on the fridge." She grinned. "Welcome to Avengerville."

*

"Okay. You and Clint both possess this bizarre impulse, and I don't get it."

Steve gave Natasha a look. "Did you come over here just to heckle me?"

"I saw you standing on your roof in the rain. I came to see why and make sure you didn't die." To that end, she'd let herself into his house, come up stairs, and heckled him through his bedroom window. He was outside of it on the roof of the porch, installing a flower box.

"It wasn't raining when I started, and I'm under the eave anyway." He and Sharon had chosen a craftsman house; it had deep eaves and a massive porch. "Sharon's got her final hearing today, and I wanted this done before she got home." Nat knew that, of course. Barton had flown Sharon down to DC for it.

"I'm just trying to understand this bizarre male urge to build things. Clint's got a project list as long as my arm and is taking requests from other people. And you are standing on a roof nailing a box to the side of your house." She crossed her arms on the window sill and leaned out to peer at the box. "At this rate, I really am going to end up in gingham."

"I think you would look very fetching in gingham. We should have had those for bridesmaids dresses." Steve had named-dropped the hell out of his Captain America-ness, and gotten their massive wedding arranged in a couple of months, and they'd gotten married in December. He did most of the planning because of how busy Sharon was, though the other women chipped in where they could. It had been gorgeous and exhausting and quite the public spectacle.

"Okay, you just used the word fetching, it's probably already too late for you." He drove the last nail in and she reached down and wiggled the box to test it, which was the first helpful thing she'd done so far. "What are you planting?" she asked.

"I was thinking purple."

"Purple's nice. You could try aster, it's wild around here so it'll grow easy. Or lavender grows wherever you toss it, but it attracts bees."

He lifted his head very slowly and stared at her. She shrugged and made a face. "He's building me a gardening shed. I might as well learn how to garden." 

"Sharon grew up with grass. She probably knows more about flowers than I do."

"Violet's from Connecticut and her mom is apparently a gardner with a capital G. She's been working with me. Apparently, Ada's class learned about 'living green' and now she wants to grow her own food."

"That'll go well with the chickens." He shooed her back so he could climb inside the window. "Nat. Who are we?"

She laughed. "When I told you years ago I was going to go figure out my new cover, this was not al _all_ what I meant."

"Because this isn't a cover. This is you."

"That's even stranger." She watched him gather up his tools. "What about you? Does this seem like the end of a very long road? Or just as weird as it does to me?"

"When I went to war thought I'd come home after. Have a house, have a family. Got lost for a while, but I guess everything comes around."

"I never had any dreams. I went to the Red Room as a child. Whoever I might have been never got a chance to grow up." She bent and picked up a hammer and put it in his tool box. "I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that she wants a simple life with a good man and chickens."

"And occasionally saving the world." Above them, he could hear the roar of the quinjet. "Speaking of our spouses."

"Wanna go stand on the Wife Line with me?"

"There's a petition to call it the Family Line, you know." 

"Yeah, good luck with that," she said, heading out of the room. "It was the Wife Line before most of us were or had wives. I don't see that changing."

"Apparently Ada is bothered by linguistic imprecision."

Nat clicked her tongue. "She's hard to argue with," she conceded. They took the little electric car over to the landing strip where the planes were kept, the quinjet already parked and unloaded when they arrived.

Sharon had been headed for the flock of cars lined up at the far end of the strip but changed course when she saw Steve climb out. Nat gave her a little salute as she passed her, beelining for the jet where Clint was chatting with one of the mechanics.

"Honey, I'm home," Sharon said when she reached him.

He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her a little off her feet. "I noticed."

She wrapped her arms around him and he heard her take a deep breath, burying her face in the side of his neck. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." He kissed what he could reach, which was her ear. "How'd it go?"

"Good." She leaned back to kiss him gently. "Everyone is very happy with the new campus. The political infighting over which acronym owns us is done with." She blew out a breath and smiled. "I'm going to tell Tony I think it's safe for Bruce to come home."

Steve grinned. "See? Because you're the best. Let me go tell him, why don't you go tell Violet?"

"And after that meet me at home? I was hoping we could have a nice quiet night together."

"Sounds good." He paused. "Does it have to be quiet?"

She laughed. "No. Just private." She tugged him down into a deeper kiss.

They let the kiss get a little unfit for public consumption before he finally lifted his head. "Go."

"See you later," she said with a wink and climbed into on of the electric carts, putting off towards the residential section. FRIDAY informed Steve that Tony was at his lab and proceeded to have the car take him there.

It was a huge space, attached by walkways to Amanda's labs and the medical buildings. He was also building a massive R&D facility for Stark Industries up the road from the Avengers campus. He and Pepper had a lot of places to shuffle back and forth to and from. So much so that they'd hired Violet an assistant whose primary job was to travel with Pepper so she could take Ruby.

Steve didn't envy them one bit. He was more than ready to put his feet down and stand still for a bit. Sharon flying back and forth to DC was plenty as it was.

It was ominously quiet in there. "Hello?" Steve called.

The was no reply immediately, then Tony's voice. "Is this a happy visit or an angry visit?"

"Are you going to hide from me if it's the latter?"

"Only till I figure out what I did this time."

Steve was not fond of talking to an empty room. "Well, I have good news, but I'm now tempted not to tell you for spite."

There was some sounds off to the far back right - maybe him putting down or adjusting some equipment - then Tony himself appeared at the end of the aisle, wiping dark grease off his hands onto a rag. "Oh, honey, don't be like that."

"I can be however I want. My wife has gotten you your partner in crime back."

His brows went up. "They approved Bruce coming home?"

"Yes. But we do need to have a serious conversation about what you two get up to."

"I promise, no more world saving without approval from at least two of my minders." Tony lifted a hand into a little three fingers scout's honor salute.

"I _will_ sic Doc on you," he warned.

"She's on the minder list," Tony assured him. "Pepper updates it. I think you and Nat are alternates."

Steve didn't worry too much. The medical things had really captured his attention, and Bruce would only help that. But he still deserved a little ribbing, just in case. "You'll handle transport?"

"I'll send out feelers to him tonight and fly out in the morning. He's been volunteering with that hospital we built a couple years back. They'll know where to find him."

He smiled. "You're flying yourself?"

"Wouldn't trust anyone else to go get my buddy. No offense to Barton, of course." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "You want to see what I'm working on?"

"As long as it's quick, I've got a date." Though. . . Sharon and Violet were probably going to be a while.

"Won't take long," he said beckoning to him as he wound his way back through the work tables. "You'll still have plenty of time to trash your house."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he murmured. Tony tossed him a knowing smirk.

They stopped at a work bench all the way in the back of the room. There were stereo speakers hung on the wall playing something with a pounding beat. The table was covered in tools and equipment. Some Steve recognized, like various sizes of screw driver and a couple of welding torches and masks. Some were mysterious and vaguely threatening.

In the middle of it all lay what was very clearly an arm. At first Steve assumed it was an upgrade to a suit - either Tony's or Amanda's. But on closer inspection he realized its interior was full of mechanics, with nowhere for an arm to go.

"Is that for Bucky?" he asked, though it was a dumb question. Who else would it be for?

"Yeah," Tony said in that extremely casual tone that sounded like he was waiting for his dad to approve of his science fair project. "I haven't mentioned it to him. Or Doc. But I've spent enough time with her the last few months to know his has some downsides. And I'm guessing he's still got some negative associations with it from Hydra and everything." He picked up what looked like an elbow joint and a small screw driver and started puttering with it. "He's let me check it out a couple times, but we've never talked about upgrades. Maybe he'll hate it, but I came up with a new idea for the articulations and, well." He shrugged.

Steve came forward to touch it. It had a thin, flexible membrane connecting the plates, so he expected it wouldn't snag Amanda's hair. It looked much more comfortable, without losing its character. Bucky was kind of fond of it being metal, insisting fake skin was too uncanny-valley for him. "I know his Wanda nightmare was about the arm malfunctioning in the worst possible way."

"The one he's got. . . it's way above anything I'd seen before when he got to the Tower. Odds of it doing anything like that are slim to none. This one will be even more safe. He'll have all the strength he's used to, but I've got the fine motor tweaked down to better than human. He could pick up rose petals without bruising them."

"Hold a baby?"

Tony glanced at him, then the arm. "Of course." He peered at the thing he was messing with. "I put in a vibrate feature, too."

Steve cleared his throat. "I imagine Doc will appreciate that." Of course, he then had to turn it on to demonstrate. Steve really couldn't believe he was weighing in on this, but he said, "That seems a little. . . strong. You might want to be careful with your calibrations."

Tony gave him a look. "Please. You have any idea how many of these things I make for Pepper? I could open a sex toy shop. Probably do better than any of the current ones. Also, it's fully adjustable." There must have been something on Steve's face, because he added, "She's away a lot, and don't knock it 'till you try it."

It wasn't that vibrators made him uncomfortable. It was talking about other people's that was over some sort of line. Sharon had actually named it the Old Fogey Line. "So. I'm going to go now. I'm sure Bucky will love it."

"Good. I'll show it to him after I get back with Banner." He tossed Steve a shit-eating grin. "Have fun on your 'date.'" Steve could _hear_ the quotation marks.

The sun was getting behind the mountains and the rain picked up again by the time Steve got home. He shook what water he could off on the porch, and then went inside. "Sharon?"

"Upstairs!" she called. "Just got out of the shower."

He jogged up the stairs. "Damn, I'm too late."

She had on underpants and a tank top and was drying out her hair. She'd grown it out for the wedding and had spent the last three months debating whether or not to cut it. Unstyled and damp, it fell most of the way to her waist. "Ha-ha," she said, flipping her head back to look at him over her shoulder. "Taking it off is half the fun."

He came up behind her and put his arms around her, swaying her a little. "I can work with this."

"I didn't think you'd complain." She leaned back into him and tilted her head back for a kiss. 

They kissed while he worked her tank top upwards, but he stopped when she suddenly went a little still. "What?"

"Something I should tell you before we. . . commence activities."

He moved so he could face her. "Something wrong?"

"No. At least I hope not." She cleared her throat and fidgeted her tank top back down. "When I was down in DC I went and saw my old OB/GYN. She removed my IUD for me."

"You. . ." he blinked a couple of times. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. My meetings are done. I'm going to do my job up here for the foreseeable future. We have a big house and neighbors we like." That with a little smile. "Yes, there could be another catastrophe in a day or a week or a month. But. . . I actually talked to Violet about it a bit and she confirmed that there's never a perfect time to have a baby. There's always going to be a problem or the potential of the problem. I'm ready and you're ready and that's all that matters. We'll figure out the rest later."

He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. "I love you so much."

"I love you back," she said softly. "I can't wait to meet our babies."

"We should get to work then, shouldn't we?"


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A dozen comments on the last chapter and not ONE of you mentions Bucky's new vibrating arm? For shame. Where are your priorities?

Violet didn't think she'd been this nervous before her wedding. This was probably what women had felt when their sweethearts came back from deployment. She did a little twirl in front of her mirror and nodded. It was probably too cold and rainy for a skirt, but she'd only be outside a few minutes and it was a special occasion.

FRIDAY pinged a warning at her and she slid her feet into shoes and headed downstairs. Amanda had come over to watch the kids while Violet met Bruce's plane. 

"Why can't I come meet Daddy?" Ada asked again, lip coming out to pout.

"Because if I bring you I'll have to bring Neil and he can't be trusted around the planes." She bent to kiss Ada's cheek. "Also, I would like to have a couple of private grown up minutes with Daddy before you tackle him and tell him all the fun stuff you've been doing."

Ada didn't seem particularly thrilled with this but nodded. "But when you get back it's my turn, right?"

"Promise." Violet straightened and turned to Amanda. "Thank you so much for this."

She shook her head. "It's not a problem. I brought Ada an anatomy coloring book. I'll have her ready for med school by the end of the summer."

"Science and art, her two great loves." There were a lot of things in her life that Violet was grateful for. A new, gorgeous, custom house for her and her kids. Good friends, a steady job. A man she loved who was finally coming home to her. But almost as important, to her, was how all of these remarkable people not only put up with her precocious little genius, but actively encouraged and taught her. She had always told Ada that she could be anything she wanted. With the Avengers tutoring her, she really might be.

Amanda smiled. "The human body is quite a bit of both." 

Ada was perusing the book, and looked up at Amanda. "Do you have a favorite body part?"

She hunkered down. "Oh, I don't know if I could pick just one." Ada looked disappointed, so Amanda added. "I have a favorite muscle. The sternocleidomastoid. It runs from here." She tapped Ada's collarbone. "To here." She touched the underside of her jaw. "It helps tilt and rotate your head. And it's a lot of fun to say."

When Violet left the two of them were chanting "sternocleidomastoid" in a little singsong.

The golf cart was waiting outside. Tony made faces when she called it a golf cart, but Violet was a fan of accurate labeling. It was much comfier inside, though. "ETA on the plane is four minutes," FRIDAY said as they pulled out. "Mr. Stark inquired as to if you were coming alone."

"I am. Why, is something wrong?"

"I am only passing along the inquiry," she replied. Which, she didn't have to. It was obvious Violet was alone in the vehicle, so FRIDAY didn't need to tell her Tony had asked. Like JARVIS before her, she was good at skirting the edges of her protocols to achieve her goals. She wouldn't have done so without a reason.

Great. That meant this would be a very long four minutes as she tried to figure out what the problem might be.

She heard the quinjet rumble overhead as the cart puttered down the road to the air strip. Despite the dreary weather she cracked one of the windows open to catch a whiff of the forest air. The compound reminded her of the summer camp she'd gone to as a child. Reactions to the move out of Manhattan had been mixed, but Violet liked it up here.

The cart pulled to a stop at the end of the airfield just as the jet was setting down. Violet waited a moment for the engines to wind down before climbing out to go stand on The Line.

A few weeks ago, Ada had asked to go and meet Jane coming back from a conference, and while she and Thor were waiting for the plane to land, she'd taken issue with the fact that it was still called the Wife Line when none of the people standing behind it were wives. As a lover of words, Violet appreciated her desire to be precise. But Family Line didn't trip off the tongue quite as well. Also, getting a group of adults to change a name of something was easier said than done.

The back of the jet opened and the ramp lowered. Violet bounced on her toes, feeling on pins and needles.

Then Bruce appeared, in an extremely wrinkled green shirt and tan slacks, looking a few pounds skinnier and in desperate need of a haircut. He was holding a bundle of some sort in one arm. As he got closer she realized it was a baby.

A part of her had been hoping to throw herself at him and maybe get spun around. . . but he was holding a baby. She had no idea what to make of that, other than to assume that was why Tony wanted her alone. Then their eyes met for real and she _felt_ spun around. "Hi."

He grinned and came close enough to rest his forehead on hers. She touched his waist and leaned into him a moment. He chuckled, the sound rumbling in his chest. "The Other Guy is very excited to see you."

"The feeling is mutual," she assured him, then looked down at the baby. Dark skinned, with a wisp of black hair and delightfully pink cheeks. "Who's this?" she asked softly.

"A long story."

She leaned back to look at his face. "Usually it's the woman who surprises her man with a baby."

That made him smile. "Her mother had eclampsia and died a few hours after labor. Couldn't have been more than 15. Her family didn't want anything to do with the baby. Left her in the hospital. For us to take her to the orphanage, I suppose."

"And you decided to take her instead?"

"I tracked the family down, showed her pictures of you and the kids. Told her you were my wife and we couldn't have any more." Violet arched a brow and he shrugged. "i rearranged the truth a bit. They signed her over. So it's official. She's ours."

She looked at the baby again, this time reaching out to take her. Bruce handed her over and Violet smiled at the familiar, warm weight. "Does she have a name?"

"Seemed wrong to name her without you. The family didn't have an opinion."

Violet unwrapped her swaddle to check out her fingers and toes and chubby thighs. "Guess I better research Indian scientists."

"Seriously?" Tony had materialized beside them. "No yelling? No slapping?"

"Do I strike you as a yeller or a slapper?" she asked, cooing at her new daughter. Bruce held a hand out and Tony grumbled, pulled out his wallet and handed him a wad of bills. Violet chuckled. "Oh, I should ask Pepper and Amanda if they have clothes and such I can borrow."

"I have some stuff, the nurses at the hospital took up a collection." He reached out and touched the baby's back. "I was going to call you. I should have. But I was perseverating about it while she was still in the hospital, and then Tony called and day there is night here and. . ."

"It's all right," Violet said. "That's a very strange question to ask over the phone." She looked up at him and smiled. "What does the Other Guy think of her?"

Bruce gave a crooked little smile. "He would not have been okay leaving her behind."

"Well. I guess it's unanimous, then."

"Okay, I'm going home before it starts raining again," Tony said. "You should, too." He clapped them each on the shoulder. "Congratulations, you crazy kids." He patted Bruce and extra time before sauntering off. "The other option will still be available in the future," he called over his shoulder.

Violet didn't know what he meant by that, but Bruce called back, "Still not going to gestate your army."

"Do I want to know?" she asked as Bruce picked up his duffle bag and they headed for her golf cart.

He shook his head. "On the flight back he told me that if he'd known I wanted babies I could have some of his. Apparently he and Pepper have like 12 frozen embryos they don't know what to do with. Then he made it weird by going on about giving them to other people and then he would finally have an army of his own. He gets kind of punchy when he's been flying for a long time."

"I should probably warn Pepper he's trying to pawn embryos off on other people." She climbed into the car with the baby, settling on her chest. "FRIDAY. Can you ask Darcy to get me some infant newborn formula as soon as possible?"

"Yes, Mrs. Marsh." There was a pause. "Mr. Stark already started fabrication on your BabyPod. Delivery expected Tuesday."

"He also offered me a bunch of Pepper's breast milk," Bruce commented. "Apparently they have bags of it left in the freezer. I honestly don't know how she hasn't killed him." He looked down at the baby, then back at Violet. "Also, I should really fix that."

She frowned glancing around the cart, then back at the baby before looking up at him. "Fix what?"

"Mrs. Marsh."

"Ah, yes. You should definitely do something about that," she agreed, leaning up to kiss him.

*  
_Three weeks later_

"Come on little one, keep up."

Wanda smiled, watching Pietro walking backwards, crouching, as Ruby Stark toddled towards him on her chubby, eighteen month old legs. The little girl was squealing and giggling, obviously anticipating the moment he would scoop her up and run around properly.

On cue, Pietro said, "Should we go faster?"

Ruby squealed and lifted her arms. "Fasser!" Pietro picked her up and went off, Ruby's laugh echoing behind.

"Be careful. . ." Pepper called after them. She must not be too worried or she'd have gotten out of the chair she was in. 

"That girl is her father's daughter." Wanda turned to see Violet standing next to her, her torso wrapped in a swath of dark purple fabric that held her tiny baby to her.

"There are worse things to be." Though if you had told Wanda, six months ago, that she might say about Tony Stark. . .

"I don't know that Pepper will think so once she's old enough to make her own trouble."

Wanda smiled, because as exasperated as Tony made her, Pepper loved that their child had inherited his thirst for knowledge and adventure. "She will always have someone to help her out of it."

"Ada is already starting to give her the same cautionary lectures as she gives Neil. I go to the bathroom for two minutes and I hear Ada yelling 'Stop licking that!' at the top of her lungs. She narrates Ruby's untidy misdeeds until I return."

"I imagine that comes in handy."

"Well, I'm never surprised by the mess I come back to anymore."

Wanda leaned over to peer at the baby currently strapped to Violet's chest. "And how is the little one?"

The blonde patted the baby's back. "Asima is resting up for a long night of colic." It was said with the exasperated affection Wanda had come to associate with Violet speaking of her children.

"Colic?" Without reading people, she'd discovered a lot of gaps in her English vocabulary.

"Baby thing. They cry for several hours in the evening or night and it's difficult to soothe them. Usually they outgrow it when they get a little older."

"They just cry for no reason?"

"They used to think it had something to do with digestive and gas issues," Amanda said, joining the conversation. "But there's no evidence of it. Now it's actually defined by having no discernible reason and for being very regular. Edie used to cry from ten to one, every night. Like clockwork."

Wanda tilted her head. "I could ask her."

She saw Violet and Amanda exchange a glance. Amanda shrugged and Violet turned back to Wanda. "Do it."

Wanda opened her mind and focused on the little one. Babies were disjointed and very. . . base emotions. It was far harder to make sense of than adults. "It is. . .too much. The world is too much."

The two mothers made almost identical noises of sympathy and Violet ducked her head to kiss the top of Asima's head. "That is a pretty good reason."

Wanda smiled. "There is always a reason."

"That is a very useful skill to have," Amanda said. 

"But it does bother people."

"Most of us like to think our thoughts are private."

Wanda worked hard to keep out of the heads of those who requested it. A couple, like Steve, had given her permission to read him if she felt the need. Others thought loudly - Darcy Lewis, for example, and Stark, oddly enough. If she got too close to Dr. Banner she could hear the Hulk, though not Bruce. The last couple weeks, the Other Guy had been mulling over Violet and Bruce's possible engagement, and the new baby. Both things pleased him greatly.

Her brother let her read him, and in truth she didn't think she could have stopped if she tried. The rest of them were on a case by case basis. She had no real desire to snoop. Other people's thoughts were typically pretty mundane and boring.

Though she did wonder now if she was going to get calls to come diagnose mystery baby problems. 

"When I was a little girl, my Púridaia—my grandmother—would tell me about the village she lived in when she was small. Before the Nazis. Tucked up in the mountains, houses ringing a green. The village children would run around and chase the sheep. This is not all that different to how I pictured that."

"Jane will happily give you a lecture on how this is how we're meant to be," Amanda told her. "Small, multi family communities. Everyone pitching in with the kids and each other." She looked across the grass. At her husband standing at the grill with some of the other men, Violet's children chasing the dogs around the patch of grass. "It does have its merits."

Wanda was still occasionally amazed at how kind they had all been to her and Pietro. Natasha had told her they were a team of second chances and it seemed they had more than enough forgiveness for two misguided people trying to find their place in the world. She had expected to be part of a team. She had not expected to become family.

Around the holidays, someone - she suspected Darcy but no one had admitted to it - had realized that she and Pietro were Jewish. One day a menorah had appeared in their apartment and Violet had shown up with latkes, made from a recipe from her mother's bridge partner, and they had been as good as any Wanda's mother had made when she was a child. In January Wanda had come down with a nasty flu and no fewer than four pots of soup had been delivered, including a borscht from Nat, who had then spent an afternoon at the foot of her bed trying to learn the peculiarities of Sokovian dialect. She and Bucky spoke Russian and it was close enough they could all understand each other, which was occasionally fun while in a group and trying to tease the others.

They were strange people. But they were her kind of strange. And for two people who had had nothing but each other since they were ten years old, it was just a little bit miraculous.

Pietro appeared in the middle of the lawn and set a wind blown Ruby down next to her mother. Neil Marsh abandoned his game with the Bartons’ dog and went running over, shrieking "My turn now!" Pietro grinned and caught the little boy when he threw himself at him, then blurred again, off towards the lake.

"Not on the water!" Violet yelled after them and turned back to Wanda. "If he gets it in that boy's head he can walk on water he'll have the Hulk to answer to."

Wanda laughed. "Pietro will not let anything happen to him."

"A little trouble is good for kids," Steve said, having come over with a plate of burgers while they were watching Pietro. "Cheese on the left, plain on the right."

Wanda took a plain one, then took a cheese for Pietro. She was quietly attempting to try eating kosher, now that food was regular and plentiful. Her brother refused to give up bacon once he'd tasted it and she tried to respect that. He needed so much food to keep going she didn't think limiting his diet would be feasible or healthy.

"See if you're still saying that after fishing your kids out of the lake," Violet was saying, carefully eating her own burger over Asima's head.

He grinned, and Wanda could feel pride come off him in waves. Sometimes when she read people for mundane things, she saw momentous things they couldn't stop thinking about instead. Though, he was so excited about the baby they expected around Christmas that she could practically hear it from her house. They had not told anyone yet, so she was pretending she didn't know. She ought to tell him that if he kept grinning like an idiot people were going to figure it out. All he said was, "I'll teach them to swim."

"Well, you can practice with Neil this summer," Violet told him and Wanda had the distinct impression that the grinning had already tipped one person off. 

"I will take you up on that," he replied. "Can I get you ladies anything else?"

"I saw Nat wandering around with a pitcher of lemonade," Amanda said hopefully.

Lemonade suddenly sounded like the best thing ever. Wanda had a mouthful of food but made an enthusiastic noise that made Steve chuckle and go off to find Nat and/or the pitcher.

Sure enough, Nat showed up with the lemonade a just as Pietro was returning with Neil. "I was summoned." She held up the pitcher and cups. "It's spiked."

"You're serving spiked lemonade at my one-year-old's birthday?" Amanda asked, taking her cup.

Wanda handed Pietro his cheeseburger and he devoured it in three bites around a muffled, "Thank you."

"More! More!" Neil was jumping up and down. Pietro took the pitcher from Nat, poured some in his mouth—without touching it—and handed it back. Then he picked up Neil and dashed.

"He was always like that," Wanda commented. "Full of energy. Púridaia said he had a wild spirit."

"Neil has never met a person he couldn't exhaust," Violet said.

"They're a good match, then." And then, because even without poking she knew the degree to which Violet fretted about her son, she added, "Neil loves you very much. And is grateful you try so hard to understand him."

Violet stared at her a moment, then gave her a decidedly watery smile. "Thank you."

Nat handed her a cup of lemonade. "So you can read people that can't communicate?"

She nodded. "I can hear the Hulk," she said honestly. "Sometimes I get impressions from animals. Ones with intelligence, anyway. I'm not constantly being serenaded by butterflies, or anything."

"You can hear Barnes's dog, can't you?"

"Panzer? On occasion, yes." Wanda liked Panzer. Liked most dogs. They were cheerful and generally happy. Even stray dogs on the streets of Sokovia had been grateful for a few pets or a drink of water or stray bone.

"What the hell is he barking about at five in the morning?" That came from Amanda.

Wanda shrugged. "Smells, mostly. Pride in his territory. Eagerness for the day ahead."

"I was really hoping he and the cat were planning world domination," Nat said. "Clint will be so disappointed."

"Cats don't need help planning world domination. Especially not yours."

"Hey, Red!" Stark shouted from clear across the green. "We need the the booze!"

Nat rolled her eyes. "You sure you want to live among these jerks?"

"Is not so bad," Wanda said and Nat went off, carrying her now half empty pitcher towards the men. Wanda watched her go, watched Stark grin and say something that made Sam Wilson and Thor laugh. "I spent more than half my life hating that man," she said thoughtfully. "Sometimes I'm still not sure what happened to change it."

"When Steve first brought James to the Tower," Amanda said, "There was some sentiment that he should not be among us. Because of what he'd done. Tony lead the charge in favor of letting James stay."

"Do you know about Nat's ledger theory?" Violet asked. Wanda nodded, though she knew Nat rarely thought of her life in terms of black and red anymore. "I think Tony feels the same way about his past sins," Violet continued. "Though honestly, from what Pepper's told me, he didn't know half of what was being done with his company when it made weapons. That was Stane."

She nodded. "God knows I need some forgiveness myself."

"No one is innocent," Amanda said. She glanced at Violet. "Maybe you."

Violet pursed her lips. "I kill spiders all the time," she said in an imperious tone, which made Amanda and Wanda both grin.

Bucky strolled over, carrying Edith, who was in a very poofy pink dress that was foaming over her father's shiny new metal arm. "You three appear to be having a very serious conversation for a one year old's birthday party."

Amanda kissed him. "Just the usual. How is the birthday girl?"

"Ba!" Edith, apparently, spoke about three words. This one was multi-purpose and represented food, happiness, and her favorite stuffed animal.

Wanda reached for her, partially on instinct and partially because Edith seemed to want a change of scenery. Bucky handed her over easily and she set the little girl on her hip. "Happy birthday, Edith." She giggled and patted Wanda's cheek, then tried to stick her fingers in her mouth which Wanda neatly dodged.

Bucky slung an arm around Amanda and kissed her cheek. "Cake?"

"Cake," she replied affirmatively.

They made their way over to the picnic tables and Wanda helped Amanda get Edith into her high chair while Bucky retrieved the cake. Pietro appeared while everyone was singing, handing Neil to Bruce so he would have have his hands free for cake.

Bucky "helped" Edith blow out her candles, then cut her a huge piece of cake that the toddler promptly dug her hands into and smeared on her face.

"You remember the last time we had a birthday party?" Pietro was standing next to her. She didn't know where he'd come from, but that was typical.

She tilted her head, considering. "Two months before the bomb. Mama had to make two cakes because I wanted white with jam filling and you would eat nothing but chocolate."

"We should have one this year."

Wanda watched Sharon crouch low with her camera to take pictures of Edith covered in cake. "We should," she agreed. "With our new family."

"We're still going to need two cakes."

"That has not changed." She smiled up at him. "But think of the pile of presents."

Her brother studied her. "It's good to see you smile."

She bumped him with her shoulder. "You, too."

"Not so bad here, is it?" He crossed his arms over his chest. "The world wronged us, we wronged the world. . .and now it's over. It's done. Fresh start." He waved a hand. "With these jerks."

It did have a nice symmetry to it, as he said. Finding home and family with the last people on Earth she would expect. "They're our kind of jerks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of _Heavy Boots of Lead_.
> 
> I'll be posting a Wives Club fic sometime next weekend and a collection of random deleted scenes and one shots (we call them ficlets) will start posting sometime soon.
> 
> Happy weekend.


End file.
